‘We have some very big complaints’

US President Donald Trump on Thursday continued to take aim at the European Union for what he claims is an unequal trade relationship.

“From the United States’ point of view, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly,” Trump said in a virtual speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Following his inauguration on Monday, Trump’s second term has been a key talking point in Davos this year, particularly given his threats to impose trade tariffs on the EU. Porcelain, Mexico, Canada and beyond.

Echoing previous comments, Trump said in his Davos speech: “They make it very difficult to bring products to Europe and yet they expect to sell and do sell their products in the United States. So we have, you know, hundreds of” There are billions of dollars of deficit with the EU and no one is happy about it. And we’re going to do something about it.”

“Basically, they don’t take our farm products or our cars, but they send us cars by the millions. They put tariffs on things we want to do… We have some very big complaints with the EU,” he continued.

Triumph in December he said The EU would face “tariffs at all times” unless it increased its purchases of American oil and gas, something European officials have expressed a willingness to do.

He added Thursday: “They want to be able to compete better, and you can’t compete when you can’t get through the approval process faster. There’s no reason why I can’t go faster… I’m trying.” “Be constructive, because I love Europe.”

The United States is the largest recipient of goods from the EU and represents almost a fifth of the bloc’s exports. USA’ higher trade deficit with the EU is in machinery and vehicles, with a gap that will total 102 billion euros (106 billion dollars) in 2023. In energy, Washington had a trade surplus with the European bloc worth 70 billion euros; also has a significant trade surplus in services.

The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde he told CNBC earlier this week in Davos that the EU must “be prepared” for the imposition of US tariffs under Trump. He also said the fact that he did not immediately impose broad tariffs was a “very smart approach… because broad tariffs don’t necessarily deliver the results that are expected.”

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told CNBC that a The trade war was not in the interests of the European Union or the United States.calling the countries’ economies “very interconnected.”