President-elect Donald Trump says he is pressing the European Union to ramp up purchases of U.S. oil and gas or face tariffs on its exports to the United States.
“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. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post early Friday.
Europe is already the largest buyer of U.S. gas, accounting for 66% of all U.S. liquefied natural gas exports in 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration. The bloc turned to the U.S. as an alternative supplier to Russia following its Ukraine invasion and helped drive U.S. LNG production to record highs.
Falling prices in 2024 have dented U.S. export revenues, however. And Europe’s expanding energy production from renewable sources – and milder winters – are cooling demand for U.S. exports, EIA says.
Asked to confirm whether Trump had brought his request to the EU, an EU spokesperson directed Agri-Pulse to comments EU trade and economic security spokesperson Olof Gill made during a Friday press conference.
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“The facts are that the EU and U.S. have deeply integrated economies with overall balanced trade and investment,” Gill said, pointing to the U.S.’ services trade surplus with the EU.
He added that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “has signaled her intention to enter into a very constructive partnership with the new administration, including on energy issues.”
The last time Trump slapped tariffs on EU exports of steel and aluminum the bloc responded in 2018 with new duties on U.S. exports from Republican-voting states. Harley Davidson motorcycles, bourbon whiskey and Levi’s jeans all faced higher duties, with additional measures set to come into place if a deal wasn’t reached.
Those tariffs were suspended after both parties reached an agreement, but the suspensions are slated to expire early next year.
Analysts recently told Agri-Pulse that the EU would likely design any future retaliatory measures with a similar targeted approach.
EU officials have also indicated that they would respond in kind to any tariff escalation in a second Trump term. The EU Ambassador to the U.S. Jovita Neliupšienė told Agri-Pulse and other reporters last month that the bloc will be ready to respond.
“If there are some new frictions for the trade, I think the European Union will be ready, actually, to react to that,” Neliupšienė said.
The EU has also added a new trade tool to its arsenal since the last Trump administration. Its anti-coercion instrument came into force in 2023 and allows the EU to adopt countermeasures, including tariffs or import quotas, if the commission determines a government is engaging in economic coercion.
“Kinda a little bit coercive, don’t you think?” Sam Lowe, a partner at Flint Global who works on EU trade policy, wrote of Trump's post in a newsletter Friday morning.
