‘The EU is possibly as bad as China’ on trade, Donald Trump says in Fox interview
‘They don’t want our farm products,’ Trump said. ‘Now in all fairness they have their farmers … But we don’t protect ours and they protect theirs’
Europe is “possibly as bad as China” on trade, US President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday, with trade wars emerging against both the Asian giant as well as long-time allies in Europe and Canada.
“The European Union is possibly as bad as China, only smaller,” Trump said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures programme.
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“They send a Mercedes in, we can’t send our cars in. Look what they do to our farmers. They don’t want our farm products. Now in all fairness they have their farmers … But we don’t protect ours and they protect theirs,” he said.
Trump had already threatened tariffs on cars imported from the European Union, in response to the EU’s retaliatory tariffs last week on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and motorcycles.
The EU retaliation came after Trump’s administration on June 1 struck Europe as well as allies in Canada, Mexico and elsewhere with tariffs on aluminium and steel.
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs take effect Sunday against American products including Florida orange juice, ketchup and Kentucky bourbon.
Canada and the US are among the world’s largest trading partners, with an estimated $673.9 billion in goods and services exchanged in 2017, with the US scoring a small surplus ($8.4 billion), according to US government data.