Trump threatens the EU
“Otherwise there will be tariffs, endlessly”
Updated 12/20/2024 – 11:42 amReading time: 1 min.
Donald Trump is increasing the pressure on the EU. The future US president wants Europeans to buy more oil and gas from the USA – otherwise there will be tariffs.
US President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated his tariff threat against the European Union with a demand to buy oil and gas from the United States.
He told the European Union that it had to make up for the enormous US deficit in bilateral trade “through large-scale purchases of our oil and gas,” Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social. “Otherwise there will be tariffs, endlessly!!!,” he added.
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However, in the EU there is actually hardly any government influence on the European refining industry when purchasing oil and gas if the sources of supply are not sanctioned, as is currently the case in Russia.
During the election campaign, Trump threatened that Europe would pay a high price for the decades-long trade surplus with the USA and brought tariffs on goods from the EU of ten or 20 percent into play. This could particularly hit the European export champion Germany hard, because the USA is the largest buyer of goods “Made in Germany”.
During his first term in office, Trump had already resolved various trade conflicts with the help of punitive tariffs. During the election campaign, he also threatened China with punitive tariffs of at least 60 percent.
