Donald Trump issued his most critical assessment of the EU to date during a campaign rally last night, as his rant against Brussels drew huge applause.
President Trump, who was addressing a rally in Pennsylvania, railed against the EU over tariffs and laid down a a tough red line in his talks with the bloc.
He said that he will remove the tariffs only if the EU open up their barriers and get rid of every single one of their tariffs.
President Trump told a rapturous crowd: “Now, all these countries are ringing up. A lot of you are originally from EU countries, that sounds nice, but the EU they kill us on trade.
“You hear European union, sounds so innocent. It’s not innocent. They’re very tough. They’re very smart. We lose $100 billion a year.
“We charge them practically nothing. We sell things into them, number one, you can’t get it through the barriers. They have artificial barriers.
“That’s not a monetary barrier, that’s other things, environmental, they come up with things you wouldn’t even believe. We can’t get our product in there.
“So I said open up your barriers, get rid of your tariffs, and we’ll do this.
“If you don’t do that we’re going to tax Mercedes Benz, we’re going to tax BMWs. Cars are the big money item.”
Before the rally took place, Mr Trump tweeted his irritatin at the EU’s manipulation of trade, saying: “The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the U.S. very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum.
“If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on U.S. products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc.”
Mr Trump’s announcement of import tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium has sparked fears of a trade war.
The EU’s trade commissioner has complained that there is “no immediate clarity” from the US on how the bloc can gain exemption from the new tariffs.
The Brussels-based bloc has threatened retaliatory tariffs on US goods, including iconic products like bourbon, motorcycles and blue jeans.