Now Trump takes on EU over trade
DONALD Trump has attacked the European Union, China and other nations over trade, threatening to ‘take on’ both the bloc and the superpower.
Addressing a rally in Michigan, the President said the EU ‘ sounds so nice’ but it was ‘formed to take advantage of the United States’.
The EU was temporarily spared from a round of tariffs on metal imports imposed by Mr Trump in March, although the exemption is due to expire in the coming days.
But last night German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany, France and the UK were ready to hit back if the Trump administration did not permanently exempt the EU.
Pledging to support US farmers, Mr Trump accused Brussels of putting up barriers, saying: ‘ When we take on China or the European Union, which has tremendous blocks, it’s very hard for us to sell stuff into the European Union. It was put there to take advantage of the United States, OK.’
Responding to someone shouting ‘ not anymore’, he replied: ‘You’re right. Not anymore. We told them that yesterday actually... Those days are over. But we’ve got to open up these markets. It’s not fair.’
The US and China have been locked in a dispute over tariffs on metals and other products. Meanwhile French president Emmanuel Macron and Mrs Merkel are reported to have urged Mr Trump to extend the EU’s exemption on aluminium and steel levies during visits to Washington. Mrs Merkel said that she has spoken to Mr Macron and UK PM Theresa May since returning from her Friday talks with Mr Trump. The three European leaders ‘agreed that the US ought not to take any trade measures against the European Union’. Bemoaning the US’s deficit in international trade, Mr Trump told the rally: ‘We’re going to get it opened up or we’re not doing business with these countries. With the European Union last year... that sounds so nice, doesn’t it?
‘I don’t know why, they literally... formed to take advantage of the United States. And I don’t blame them. You know what? I don’t blame them, I don’t blame (Chinese) president Xi ( Jinping). I don’t blame prime minister (Shinzo) Abe of Japan, I don’t blame the heads of these countries for taking advantage of us.
‘I blame past presidents and past leaders of our country.’
Yet in an article for The Sun on Sunday, US ambassador Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson wrote that Mr Trump wants to take the special relationship to ‘another level’ by signing a trade deal with Britain.
Meanwhile a Downing Street statement said Mrs May, Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron ‘pledged to continue to work closely with the rest of the EU and the US administration with the aim of a permanent exemption from US tariffs’.
Voters need to confront ‘irresponsible myths’ about how trade deals could weaken food standards or risk Britain missing out on post-Brexit opportunities, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will tell fellow MPs today.