President Donald Trump on Sunday issued new threats against America’s trade partners, calling for them to remove trade barriers and tariffs, or face the consequences.
“The United States is insisting that all countries that have placed artificial Trade Barriers and Tariffs on goods going into their country, remove those Barriers & Tariffs or be met with more than Reciprocity by the U.S.A. Trade must be fair and no longer a one way street!” Trump said in a tweet.
Trump has already warned China that the U.S. will seek additional tit-for-tat tariffs on Chinese exports if China slaps retaliatory tariffs of its own on U.S. exports. Sunday’s message may indicate a similar stance toward the European Union.
On Friday, Trump’s threatened to impose 20% tariffs on European cars in response to the EU’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on more than $3 billion worth of U.S. goods as retaliation for U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum that the Trump administration put into effect on June 1.
On Saturday, EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told the French newspaper Le Monde that “If they decide to raise their import tariffs, we’ll have no choice, again, but to react,” according to Reuters. “We don’t want to fight (over trade) in public via Twitter. We should end the escalation.”
