United States President Donald Trump lashed out against the European Union over what he described as an unfair trade relationship.
“When we take on the European Union, which has tremendous blocks, it’s very hard for us to sell stuff into the European Union,” Trump told supporters at an election campaign-style rally near Detroit, Michigan, on April 28.
“It was put there to take advantage of the US,” he added. “Not anymore. Those days are over. But we’ve got to open up these markets, it’s not fair.”
As reported by the Spanish news agency EFE, Trump spoke for more than an hour. He repeated his campaign promises to “straighten out” “disastrous” deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he said had led to farmers “doing lousy for 15 years”, or the Iran nuclear deal.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, travelled to Washington, to convince Trump not to back out of the Iran deal, which was signed in 2015 by his predecessor Barack Obama. Trump is expected to announce whether he will withdraw from the agreement by May 12.
Macron and Merkel also called on Trump to cancel his 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% for aluminium, from which the EU has so far been exempt. Trump has until May 2 to decide whether to extend that exemption.
