Speaking in Washington on Sunday after returning from his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump indicated that the 27-nation European Union would be next in the firing line, but did not say when.
“They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products. They take almost nothing and we take everything from them,” he told reporters.
EU leaders meeting at an informal summit in Brussels on Monday said Europe would be prepared to fight back if the US imposes tariffs, but also called for reason and negotiation.
Arriving at the talks, French President Emmanuel Macron said if the EU were attacked in its commercial interests it would have to “make itself respected and thus react”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said the bloc could respond if necessary with its own tariffs against the US, but stressed it was better for the two to find agreement on trade.
Trump hinted that Britain, which left the EU in 2020, might be spared tariffs, saying: “I think that one can be worked out”.
The US is the EU’s largest trade and investment partner. According to the Eurostat data from 2023, the United States had a deficit of 155.8 billion euros (US$161.6 billion) with the EU in the trade of goods, offset by a surplus of 104 billion euros in services.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said there were no winners in a trade war, and if one broke out between Europe and the United States, “then the one laughing on the side is China”.
