Real Clear Politics Phillip Wegmann asked Trump, “The EU has said that they have offered zero-for-zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods. Is that not enough?"
Trump responded, "No, it's not. The EU has been very tough over the years. It was — I always say it was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade. That's the reason it was formed. It was formed with all of the countries from Europe — I guess most of them, not all of them, but most of them and they formed together to create a little bit of a monopoly situation, to create a unified force against the United States for trade, so they have NATO, which is largely the same countries, and they took advantage of us, dollar-wise and militarily until I got there."
The president reiterated that he was able to get some of the countries in the NATO alliance to start paying into the organization, then added, "We were paying for NATO, so we're paying them to guard them militarily, and they're screwing us on trade, so that's not a good combination."
On Monday, EU president Ursula von der Leyen said, "We stand ready to negotiate with the United States. Indeed, we have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods, as we have successfully done with many other trading partners, because Europe is always ready for a good deal."
However, von der Leyen also reiterated that the EU is also ready to implement countermeasures in response to the tariffs that were implemented by Trump last week on the EU as well as a number of other countries.
“We are also prepared to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests,” she said. “And in addition, we will also protect ourselves against indirect effects through trade diversion.” Documents have reportedly shown that one of those counter-measures is a 25 percent tariff on a number of US goods, according to Reuters.
Trump made the comments during an Oval Office press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Trump also reiterated that he is looking to "reset the table" on trade and that this is the only chance to do it with him in office.
