USA would be exploited

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(Bild: APA/AFP/ROBERTO SCHMIDT)

US President Donald Trump wants to impose import tariffs on products from the European Union in the near future. "I don't have a timetable, but it will be very soon", Trump said in Washington on Sunday. 

The EU countries "are really taking advantage of us", Trump complained, adding that the USA had a trade deficit of "300 billion dollars" (around 293 billion euros) with the EU. On Saturday, Trump imposed high import tariffs on products from Canada, Mexico and China by decree.

"They don't take our cars or our agricultural products, almost nothing, and we all take, millions of cars, huge amounts of agricultural products," Trump said on Sunday. The EU had announced that it would "react decisively" to any measures taken by Trump. However, no concrete plans for tariffs against the EU are known to date. No tariffs are apparently planned against the UK for the time being. "We'll see what happens. It could happen," said Trump. However, he believes an agreement with London is possible.

High tariffs against neighboring countries Canada and Mexico
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is "very nice", Trump said. "We've had a couple of meetings, we've had numerous phone calls, we get along very well, and we'll see if we can work it out or not," he added, referring to the trade balance with the UK.

On Sunday, Trump opened the door for negotiations with Canada and Mexico and announced talks for Monday. Trump had imposed import tariffs of up to 25 percent on both countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau then announced counter-tariffs of 25 percent, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also announced countermeasures. However, she had initially proposed a dialog with the US President and was waiting for a response.

Trump: "Pain" is worth it
Trump admitted on Sunday that the tariffs could possibly cause US citizens economic "pain". However, these were "worth the price" in order to safeguard the interests of the USA, the US President asserted in his online service Truth Social.