Washington:
US President Donald Trump said that the European Union proposal for exemption from tariffs on industrial products including cars on Monday is not sufficient for the transatlantic trade deficit.
Trump told reporters at the White House, “The European Union has been very bad for us, they do not take our cars, like Japan, they do not take our agricultural products. They do not take anything practically anything.”
Last week, Trump announced a 20 percent tariff on European goods in its all-out protectionist aggressive, which is set to be effective on 9 April.
Trump’s comments came in response to the proposal announced on Monday by European Commission Chairman Ursula von Der Leyen, seeking bilateral tariff exemption for cars and other industrial goods.
“We have proposed zero tariffs on industrial products … Europe is always ready to make a good deal” with the United States, von Der Leyen said during a press conference in Brussels.
But “We are also ready to respond against the invasive of Trump’s business and protect our interests, he warned.”
In the comments on Monday, Trump said the European Union’s trade deficit would “disappear rapidly” if the European countries moved to buy American energy.
“They have to buy and commit like the energy amount (for this trade deficit),” Trump said.
Trump, who did not specify that such a purchase would mean raising tariffs against the European Union, stated that a deal to cancel the United States trade deficit with the European Union would be $ 350 billion.
According to the US Trade Representative Office, the US Goods trade deficit with the European Union was only $ 235.6 billion in 2024.
(This story is not edited by NDTV employees and auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)