The president of the United States, Donald Trump, knocked down the European Union survey of a zero rate commercial relationship in some goods, demanding that the block make more to rectify the significant commercial imbalance, such as buying more energy produced by Americans.
With the markets by pressing politicians worldwide, the main Eurocats came out on Monday, trying to appease Washington with concessions. The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Brussels had transmitted a sacrifice of “zero for zero” tariffs on industrial goods, while the commercial envoy Maroš šefčovič suggested a “boost in strategic areas” as semiconductors.
However, Brussels did not approach the key complaints of the Trump administration about the unjust levies in cars made by the United States sold in Europe and other commercial barriers in American food.
When commenting on the EU proposal, President Trump told journalists at the White House on Monday that he was not good enough from his perspective.
“No, it is not,” said President Trump about the EU sacrifice, pointing out the great commercial imbalance with the EU, which are the claimed of around $ 350 billion. According to the United States Commercial Representatives Agency, it stood at $ 235.6 billion last year.
“One of the ways in which they can easily and quickly disappear is that they will have to buy us our energy, because they need it, they will have to buy us. They can buy it, we can eliminate $ 350 billion in the week” “” “
“The EU has been very difficult over the years. It was formed to really harm the United States in commerce, that is the reason it was formed. It was formed … to create a small monopoly situation, to create unified states”, the pres.
Trump also pointed to the long failures of the European nations to pay their fair part in the NATO military alliance led by the United States until the recent pressure of its administration forced the main powers, such as Germany, to meet its expense requirements.
“So we are paying them to protect them militarily and they are fucking us in commerce. That is not a good combination,” he said.
Trump’s comments and suggestions that Europe increases its energy purchases produced by the United States, probably in the form of natural gas, can point to a broader strategy of the White House.
With the first mandate of his first term, President Trump has long criticized Europe for depending largely on Russian energy, while waiting for the United States to pay its protection against Moscow’s potential threat. In 2018, he warned that countries like Germany would become “captive” to Vladimir Putin about his dependence on Russian energy.
Therefore, by pressing the EU to buy more American gas, the White House could decrease the commercial deficit and at the same time guarantee that Europe does not support the Russian economy with money for energy if a PEAC agreement.
While Brussels has not yet commented on Trump’s proposal, the EU can be susceptible to such agreement. In fact, shortly after Trump won a victory in the presidential elections, the head of the Ursula Von der Leyen commission made a similar suggestion that Europe increased the purchases of liquid natural gas (LNG) of the United States.
“We still get many LNG through Russia in Russia, and why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper for us and reduces the prices of our energy,” he said in November.
