Trump changes his tone and targets EU: ‘Nastier than China’

Donald Trump said Monday that the European Union is “nastier than China,” even as Washington and Beijing agreed to a 90-day pause in trade tensions to work toward a new agreement and avoid a renewed trade war.

Despite several negotiation attempts, the EU has been unable to persuade the Trump administration to ease tariffs imposed on European goods.

“The European Union is in many ways nastier than China, okay? Oh, they’ll come down a lot. You watch. We have all the cards. They treat us very unfairly,” Trump said during a press appearance.

This statement comes shortly after the U.S. president had described European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as “fantastic,” noting that he would like to meet with her soon.

Over the weekend, the U.S. and China held discussions on neutral ground in Geneva, Switzerland. Trump described the talks as “friendly” and stressed that the U.S. does not want to “hurt” China.

“We hope that the U.S. side will, based on this meeting, continue to move forward in the same direction with China, completely correct the erroneous practice of unilateral tariff hikes, and continually strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation,” said a spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Commerce following the meeting.

(QG - Source: Politico / The Guardian — Picture : © Unsplash)