In this case, Trump threatens the European Union with imposing customs duties

US President-elect Donald Trump threatened the European Union with tariffs if its member states did not buy more American oil and gas.
He said on the “Truth Social” platform, “I was informed that they must compensate for the huge deficit, which they face with the United States, through the extensive purchase of oil and gas from the United States, otherwise customs duties will be imposed on everything!!.”

Trump’s threats to Europe

It is the largest producer of crude oil in the world, and the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
LNG buyers, including the European Union and Vietnam, have already talked about buying more fuel from the United States, partly to counter the threat over tariffs.
Brussels is currently exploring ways to avoid a major new trade conflict with the United States.

US-European relations

It is known that European companies sell much more goods in the United States than American companies sell in bloc countries.
The trade deficit reached $131.3 billion in 2022 and the tariffs that Trump intends to impose are a type of additional fees on imported goods and are paid at the border.
Trump had also threatened that he would impose high tariffs on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada, in addition to additional duties on goods coming from China, once he returns to the White House.

High tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods

A 25% duty will apply to goods from Mexico and Canada, while an additional 10% duty will apply to goods coming from China.
Trump also threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on the BRICS countries if they undermined the US dollar.
Trump then posted on his “Truth Social” social media platform: “We ask for a commitment… that it will not create a currency for the BRICS countries, nor will it support any other currency to replace the great American dollar, otherwise it will face 100 percent tariffs.”

Threats to BRICS

The BRICS summit, which was held a while ago in Kazan, Russia, witnessed member states discussing enhancing transactions in currencies other than the dollar and strengthening local currencies.
The BRICS group has expanded since its establishment in 2009, and now includes countries such as Iran, Egypt, and the UAE, and the BRICS alliance represents a large minority of global economic output.