Trump unexpectedly compares "EU is probably just as bad as China"

Illustration photo: Reuters

“The European Union (EU) is probably just as bad as China, just on a smaller scale. What they do to us is terrible,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.

“I can put it in a more understandable way. Last year, they had a $151 billion trade surplus. We have a deficit with the EU. On top of that, we spend a fortune on NATO to protect them,” he added.

Last year, the US had a trade deficit of $101 billion with the EU. Meanwhile, the trade gap between the US and China in the same period was $336 billion.

The US President's “America First” policy, characterised by increasingly protectionist trade measures, has seen Trump impose harsh tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU as well as other countries including China and Canada.

This move has deeply offended and angered US allies. They have failed to negotiate exemptions and are forced to rely on corresponding retaliatory measures.

After the EU imposed tariffs on 2.8 billion euros worth of US goods, targeting products such as motorcycles, whiskey and orange juice, Mr Trump reiterated his readiness to target the European car sector in the next round of the trade war.

“Look at the car situation, they export Mercedes to the United States, we can’t export our cars to them. Look what they do to our farmers? They don’t want our farm products,” Trump told Fox. “How fair, they want to protect their farmers. We don’t protect our farmers.”