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

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

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

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

European percentage president Ursula von der Leyen said in November that the EU would consider buying more gas from the US.

“We still get a lot of LNG from Russia and why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our vigor prices,” she told reporters.

“It seems odd 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 per cent on all non-Chinese US imports. Last month, European Central financial institution president Christine Lagarde urged Europe’s political leaders to co-operate with him over tariffs and buy more products made in the US.

During Trump’s first presidency, then European percentage president Jean-Claude Juncker offered to buy more US gas to stem the threats of a trade war.

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

Prices for international oil point of reference Brent crude were down 0.4 per cent at $72.61 a barrel on Friday. West Texas Intermediate forward contracts were down 0.4 per cent at $69.14 a barrel.