President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to impose new tariffs on US imports from the EU, just a month after the European parliament approved the economic bloc's trade agreement with the US.
"The European Union is at it again and, as usual, taking direct aim at GREAT American Companies," Trump said in a social media post. The US Trade Representative's office (USTR) complained that the European Commission has just imposed a $1bn fine on Google, following other recent anti-trust measures against US tech giants.
The US will launch a "Section 301" investigation against the EU's "practice of 'ROBBING' American Companies and, in turn, the American Taxpayer," Trump posted.
The US has just imposed a 10pc tariff on imports from the EU, following an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Expansion Act of 301 into Europe's alleged lack of diligence in banning imports of products produced by forced labor in third party countries.
There is another Section 301 investigation underway against the EU related to "structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors." The US-EU trade deal last year capped potential punitive US tariff rates at 15pc for imports from the European bloc.
Trump earlier this month said he would to cut off all trade with Spain, an EU member, for not supporting the US war effort against Iran, but he did not follow up on his threat.
The EU mission in Washington did not immediately comment on Trump's threat. The European Commission on Thursday highlighted the benefits of the US-EU deal signed almost a year ago, highlighting that EU companies closed deals with US exporters worth €230bn ($262bn) of energy resources in the past year.
The EU has refrained from retaliating in kind against Trump's tariff in order to preserve cooperation on defense and weapons sales to Ukraine.
