WASHINGTON, Dec 20: US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday threatened the European Union with tariffs if the bloc does not reduce its "tremendous" trade gap with Washington through oil and gas purchases.
"I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Friday.
"Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!"
According to US figures, goods imports from the EU were $553.3 billion in 2022, while its exports to the bloc were $350.8 billion.
This puts the US goods trade deficit with the EU at $202.5 billion that year.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had already suggested to Trump in November that the United States could supply more liquefied natural gas to the bloc to replace Russian energy. —AFP
