Summary
Donald Trump has demanded the European Union reduce its $131.3 billion U.S. trade deficit by purchasing more American oil and gas or face tariffs.
Trump’s comments, posted on Truth Social, come as the EU works to phase out Russian energy imports and diversify suppliers.
EU officials, while open to U.S. energy imports, criticized Trump’s approach as transactional, warning of potential retaliation.
Analysts highlight risks of tariffs to inflation and global trade. The EU plans to engage pragmatically but has prepared for heightened U.S. protectionism under Trump’s leadership.
Really hope the EU ignores this and just slaps counter-tariffs. The US has military power, the EU has economic power. It does not unelastically depend on imports from the US, and has a huge internal market. Teach this fucker a lesson.
It just turns into a really dumb pissing match where the poor suffer on both sides. Europe is almost entirely reliant on LNG from the US because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
That’s not entirely true, Norway and Australia are the two on top of that list, the U.S. comes in fourth. I believe it would be possible to reduce the U.S. part even further and I also think it’s inevitable it happens, because Norway and Australia don’t slap tariffs on it - so they are going to be cheaper as well.