Donald Trump on the EU: ‘Almost as bad as China, just smaller’
The EU's Jean-Claude Juncker says he hopes the July 'ceasefire' will hold, but if it doesn't, the EU will retaliate
Washington — The EU’s Jean-Claude Juncker left Washington in late July with a Rose Garden truce — a handshake trade agreement he had good reason to believe would spare the continent from President Donald Trump’s wrath. It didn’t last. In a Bloomberg interview on Thursday the US president spoke of the European Union as though it’s likely to be his next target. “Almost as bad as China, just smaller,” he declared. Trump’s remarks cast doubt on the longevity of his agreement with Juncker, intended to stave off a broader trade war between the US and Europe after the president imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminium earlier this year. The transatlantic dispute has rattled markets and shaken the international order created after World War 2. Juncker said on Friday morning that he hoped the July “ceasefire agreement” would prevail, but the EU would impose its own tariffs if the US changed course. Reuters reported on Friday that Juncker told German broadcaster ZDF the EU would not le...
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