U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. will not negotiate with Europe on tariff changes unless it starts paying significant amounts annually.
According to Trump, Europe has expressed a desire to negotiate, but in his view, this will not happen until Europe begins paying large sums to the U.S. each year — both for current and past losses. He claimed that Europe has taken much of America’s wealth, and the U.S. will no longer allow this.
We cannot afford to lose $1.9 trillion in trade. We can’t allow that, especially when we are spending significant amounts on NATO to defend European countries. We protect them militarily while enduring trade losses, Trump emphasized.
He also repeated his claim that Europe has “treated the U.S. very poorly” and “deceived American leaders.” Trump further expressed dissatisfaction that Europeans do not buy American cars and products.
We accept their cars — Mercedes, Volkswagen, BMW, millions of their cars. But they don’t buy our cars. They don’t take our agricultural products. Europe doesn’t buy anything from us. They treat us very badly, he added.
On April 2, Trump announced the imposition of new tariffs on numerous countries. In response, several nations stated that these measures could violate NATO obligations. Discussions continue within the European Union on how to best respond to the U.S. Trump himself stated that he would be willing to lower tariffs if other countries offer something “truly significant.”
