Trump: EU Trade As Bad As China

Local Editor

US President cautioned Sunday that trading with the EU is almost as bad and unfair as trading with China.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump noted that Washington pays a fortune “protecting” its little European partners, and they reciprocate by doing “terrible” things.

“The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller,” Trump added, noting that “It’s terrible what they do to us.”

He further mentioned: “I can say it better in a different way. They made, last year, $151bn in trade surplus. We had a deficit with the EU. On top of that, we spend a fortune on NATO to protect them.”

Last year the US had a $101 billion trade deficit with the European Union. In comparison, the trade gap with China last year totaled $336 billion.

The US president's ‘America First’ policy, characterized by increasingly protectionist trade measures, has seen Trump impose harsh tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from the European Union, as well as other nations, including China and Canada. The move deeply offended and angered US allies, who failed to negotiate exemptions and had to resort to tit-for-tat retaliatory measures.

After the EU introduced duties on US goods worth €2.8bn, targeting products such as motorcycles, whiskey and orange juice, Trump reiterated his readiness to target the European automotive sector in the next round of the trade war.

“Take a look at the car situation, they send their Mercedes in, we can’t send our cars in. Look what they do to our farmers? They don't want our farm products,” Trump told Fox. “In all fairness, they have their farmers, so they want to protect their farmers. But we don’t protect ours and they protect theirs.”

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team