US President Donald Trump has taken aim at the European Union ahead of the G20 summit in Japan on Friday.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, the president said Europe “treats us worse than China” and also blasted EU antitrust cases against tech giants.
He said European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who he did not name but referenced for her work, was “suing all our companies. We should be suing Google and Facebook and all that, which perhaps we will.”
“European nations were set up to take advantage of the United States. They have worse trade barriers than China,” Trump said.
Adding, Europe makes it “almost impossible to do two-way business”.
Trump has already threatened tariffs on the EU’s the automobile sector, a key export for Germany, which has put pressure on the industry.
The US president also returned to a familiar theme and took aim at the payments EU countries make to NATO.
“We pay for close to 100 percent of NATO, people don’t know that. Germany doesn’t pay what it’s supposed to pay,” he said
Read more: NATO pledge: Which European countries spend over 2% of GDP on defence?
The main focus of the weekend meeting in Osaka will be on Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who will meet to discuss their souring trade relationship.
Euronews