Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.US President Donald Trump lashed out at the European Union on Thursday during his first major speech to a global audience since starting his second term in the White House, reinforcing worries in Brussels about the future of EU-US relations.
Speaking remotely from Washington, Trump said: “We have hundreds of billions of dollars in (trade) deficit with the EU and nobody is happy with that and we are going to do something” to resolve it.
In a nearly hour-long address to business and political leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said the United States is treated “very unfairly” and “very badly” by the 27-nation bloc owing to its trade and business rules.
Trump said he would not tolerate the US trade deficit with the EU. He also accused the EU of refusing to buy agricultural products and cars from the US. The US president has also voiced his displeasure that Europe does not buy enough American oil and gas.
“I’m trying to be constructive, because I love Europe,”
– US President Donald Trump
During his election campaign, Trump mentioned plans to introduce new tariffs of 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from the EU, saying they would boost domestic industries and address the trade deficit.
There was a fierce trade row between the US and the EU during Trump’s first term in office.
In 2018, Trump introduced tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, prompting the EU to respond with tariffs on US products such as bourbon, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and jeans.
In her speech in Davos earlier on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was ready to talk with Trump and that the bloc’s “first priority will be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate.”
“We will be pragmatic, but we will always stand by our principles. To protect our interests and uphold our values,” she added.
The Commission president struck a conciliatory tone overall in her speech without addressing the US president directly.
She stressed though that the world was entering a “new era of harsh geostrategic competition” and that the EU will also seek to improve ties with China and other nations like India as global competition heats up.
The Commission president also mentioned recent conclusions of talks with the four countries of the Latin American trade bloc Mercosur, as well as Mexico and Switzerland, as successes for European engagement.
Trump threatens tariffs
Trump’s return to the White House brings fears he will deliver on promises to slap heavy tariffs on China and United States’ allies including Canada and the EU.
The US president’s speech in Davos repeated an earlier vow to hit the EU with tariffs after being sworn into office, citing the need to rectify the EU’s trade imbalances with the US, highlighting a trade deficit of 350 billion dollars with the bloc.
The Commission however has previously rejected the US president’s claims of a 350-billion-dollar deficit with the EU.
A Commission spokesperson said that that deficit did not exist and that the US and the EU have complementary strengths. “We have a surplus in trade for goods, the US has a surplus in trade for services,” he added.
According to EU figures, the US exported goods worth 347.1 billion euro to the EU in 2023, while goods worth 503.8 billion euro were exported from the EU to the US.
In the same year, the spokesman said, US exports of services to the EU amounted to 396.4 billion euro, compared to 292.4 billion euro the other way around.
The Commission spokesman said the bloc intended to work constructively with the new US administration, but was prepared to defend its legitimate interests if necessary.
Don’t panic
Trade concerns were a recurring issue for the EU as Trump’s first week continued and a mantra to keep calm and maintain a measured approach emerged from Brussels.
European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera said the bloc “prefers to avoid confrontation” at a conference in the Belgian capital organised by the Forum New Economy, a research network. The EU “must keep a cool head”, she said.
“It does not seem very appropriate to think that the best response that can be given to a provocation is to escalate the provocations,” she added.
Defence and energy quickly developed as areas where the EU wants to improve ties with the US under Trump’s leadership and offset grounds for contention in trade relations.
Congratulating Trump on the start of his new term, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković pledged stronger cooperation between Croatia and the US in both the military and energy sector.
“We look forward to working with President Trump and his administration to further strengthen our strategic partnership with the United States. We will build on our strong cooperation in the military and energy fields,” Plenković posted on X.
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said he wanted to upgrade bilateral relations and strengthen ties as Trump took office. Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon stressed that “the US is an important strategic partner for Slovenia and we will certainly work closely with the new administration, especially in areas of common interest”.
A long-time diplomat and former ambassador to the US, Božo Cerar, told STA that he was concerned that Trump’s policies would bring a kind of divide in the EU. He added that Trump, although he does not see the EU as an actor worthy of consideration, will not completely turn his back on either Europe or Ukraine.
Kiril Petkov, a former prime minister of Bulgaria and opposition member said Trump’s return to the White House “should serve as a catalyst” for European defence efforts.
Petkov also said that supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US would be “more competitive” on the European market, aligning with Trump’s energy policy and reducing Europe’s use of fossil fuels from Russia.
“It’s clear that there will be a lot of talk about the purchase of LNG from the United States and about possible tariffs that the US could impose,” Slovak Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky said in Brussels after an EU finance ministers meeting.
He drew the attention of his EU counterparts to the need to prevent the bloc from falling from one dependency into another.
Kamenicky referred to a time when the EU was importing 40 percent of its gas from Russia before the war in Ukraine. Today some member states, which used to buy more than 50 percent of their gas from Russia, are now importing around 90 percent of their LNG from America.
The EU move to reduce Russian energy use comes against the background of a heightened threat that the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine could be compromising the bloc’s security.
At the same time, Trump, who opposes the EU’s purchase of energy from Russia while the US pays to defend Europe as part of NATO, has demanded members of the military alliance increase such expenditure to 5 percent of GDP, more than double the current minimum of 2 percent.
Poland, as the only NATO member to share a border with both Russia and Ukraine has seized on Trump’s return to the White House to push for the bloc to take greater steps to defend itself.
“Don’t ask America what it can do for our security. Ask yourselves what we can do for our own security,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the European Parliament on Wednesday, paraphrasing late US president John F. Kennedy.
Tusk urged his European partners to read the demand by Trump that NATO countries invest 5 percent of their GDP in defence as a “positive challenge”, since “only an ally can wish another ally to be stronger”.
“In these times, Europe cannot afford to save on security,” Tusk said, underlining his conviction that not only Europe but all of the United States’ allies must take responsibility for their own security, as Trump has insisted.
Small Hope
Other countries stressed the positives too. Trump’s return to the White House is above all an opportunity, Czech President Petr Pavel said, adding that he is awaiting the new US administration’s proposals on Ukraine and how to end the war.
“Let’s look at it positively. What can we take from this moment of expectation that the new administration has brought, especially regarding the resolution of the war in Ukraine,” Pavel told reporters during a visit to Montenegro.
Ukraine has been resisting Russian aggression for almost three years, thanks to military and other aid from the West, especially from the US.
A few days ago, Trump said he hopes to conclude a ceasefire within the first six months of his presidency.
The new president previously claimed that he would end the war within 24 hours after his return to the White House.
Out in the cold
Trump’s inauguration in a wintry Washington showed best the shift in America’s estimations of Europe.
Although government leaders and heads of state are not normally included on the guest-list of the ceremony, Trump broke with precedent and invited several foreign leaders. The only European leader present was Italian Prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, is on friendly terms with Trump and with his close advisor and world’s richest man Elon Musk.
For now, the Italian leader might be Europe’s best way into Trump’s inner circle.
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