President Trump on Thursday called the European Union “nasty” while sitting alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Trump complained about the steep tariff on U.S.-made cars in Europe and a Court of Justice of the European Union decision in September that required tech giants Apple and Google to pay billions in fines over antitrust issues.
“We sell no cars to Europe, I mean, virtually no cars, and they sell millions of car to us. They don’t take our agriculture. We take their agriculture — it’s like a one way street with them. The European Union is very, very nasty,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
The president continued, “They sue our companies. Apple was forced to pay $16 billion on a case that … like my cases that I won. They shouldn’t have been even cases, but we felt they had no case, and they ended up having an extremely favorable judge and decision. But they’re suing Google, they’re suing Facebook, they’re suing all of these companies, and they’re taking billions of dollars out of American companies.”
Trump railed against the EU earlier Thursday, when he threatened to put a hefty 200 percent tariff on wine, Champagne and other alcohol coming in from Europe if they don’t remove a tariff on whiskey.
A trade war with Europe was escalated Wednesday when Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum took effect, leading the EU to swiftly retaliate with a two-step approach.
The European trading bloc, which is made up of 27 nations, said it will allow the suspension of existing 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the U.S. to expire April 1. The commission is also proposing a new package of countermeasures on goods coming from the U.S. that will go into effect in mid-April, covering some $28 billion in imports in total.
