Trump asks EU to buy US oil and gas or face tariffs

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US President-elect Donald Trump has warned the EU that it must commit to buying “large-scale” quantities of US oil and gas or face tariffs.

“I told the European Union that they must make up for their tremendous deficit with the United States by purchasing our oil and gas on a large scale. Otherwise it’s TARIFFS all the way!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday.

Trump’s threat follows proposals already made by Brussels offering to buy more American liquefied natural gas, which has been a lifeline for the bloc after Russia reduced supplies of fossil fuels following its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in November that the EU would consider buying more gas from the United States.

“We still get a lot of LNG from Russia and why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper for us and lowers our energy prices,” he told reporters.

“It seems strange as a ‘threat’ given that von der Leyen alluded to the possibility of doing precisely this,” one EU official observed.

Trump has threatened a blanket tariff of up to 20 percent on all non-Chinese U.S. imports. Last month, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde urged European political leaders to cooperate with him on tariffs and buy more American-made products.

During Trump’s first presidency, then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker offered to buy more American gas to stem threats of a trade war.

Analysts at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel said the EU should back up any offer to buy more American goods “with a credible threat of retaliation that could be implemented if the United States decides to impose tariffs on EU exports.”

International benchmark Brent crude prices fell 0.4 percent to $72.61 a barrel on Friday. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 0.4 percent to $69.14 a barrel.