Trump Threatens Tax on European Cars If EU Raises Tariffs on US Companies

The US president took to Twitter Saturday to criticize current US trade policy, citing a "big trade imbalance;" in particular, he said that cars produced in Europe "freely pour" into the US as the European Union imposes "massive tariffs and barriers" on American companies, adding that Washington will introduce taxes on European products if such policies persist.

In a separate tweet, Trump wrote that jobs and wealth of the United States have been given to other countries, noting that Washington has an annual trade deficit of $800 Billion.

This comes following Thursday's commentary, where Trump said that the United States had been treated unfairly by other states in bilateral trade and would therefore be introducing a 25 percent import tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum to address the issue beginning next week.

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Trump's announcement was met with condemnation from Washington's major trade partners, particularly Canada, China and the European Union, which accused Trump of excessive protectionism and pledged to impose countermeasures. The World Trade Organization (WTO) also expressed concern with the plans, saying that a "trade war is in no-one’s interests."

Trump has been a vocal critic of US trade partners since his election campaign in 2016, accusing them of alleged dumping practices and calling for the renegotiation of trade agreements with many countries to tackle losses of manufacturing jobs in the United States.