US president Donald Trump also said that if the EU fails to meet its investment promises under the EU-US deal, the bloc will face tariffs of 35%.
He said:
“They bought down their tariffs. They paid $600bn and because of that I reduced their tariffs from thirty percent down to fifteen percent, and a couple of countries came, ‘How come, the EU is paying less than us’, and I said well, because they gave me $600bn.
And that’s a gift, that’s not like, you know, a loan … they gave us $600bn that we can invest in anything we want.”
He added:
“The details are, $600bn to invest in anything I want, anything. I can do anything I want with it.
And the purpose was, they’ve been, you know ripping us to so many years that it’s time that they pay up and they have to pay up.”
Given the political embarrassment this deal caused for her, I can’t imagine her agreeing to give him $600bn cash. Even if she did there’s no way the EU collectively would agree to that.