It is a message in the purest style of the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, alternating lowercase letters and capitals, all intimidation and bravado. “I told the European Union that it must make up its huge deficit with the United States by purchasing our oil and gas on a large scale. Otherwise, it's CUSTOMS DUTIES all the way!!! »he wrote on his social network Truth Social, on December 20, one month before his swearing in. The billionaire says he wants to tackle the trade deficit with the Twenty-Seven (151 billion euros in 2022 on trade in goods): an old obsession with him.
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His request is accompanied by a threat: if Europeans do not comply, they will be exposed to a brutal increase in customs duties on their exports. Around 10%, if Donald Trump sticks to his campaign promises.
European leaders, who do not despair of avoiding a trade war, have anticipated this request. The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had already outlined, at the beginning of November, the possibility of purchasing more American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to replace imports from Russia. Russian gas purchases have decreased since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, but have never stopped. “Do we need more American LNG to continue our diversification vis-à-vis Russia? The answer is clearly yes”judge Andreas Guth, secretary general of Eurogas, the gas lobby in Europe.
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