EU Must Buy US Energy to Get Tariff Relief: Trump

The president rejected the EU’s proposals for a ‘zero for zero’ tariffs on cars and industrial goods.

President Donald Trump answers a reporters question during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

U.S. President Donald Trump said late on April 7 that the European Union would need to buy $350 billion worth of American energy to secure relief from tariffs.

Trump was responding to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said earlier on Monday during a news conference in Brussels that the EU was ready to negotiate a “zero-for-zero” tariff pact on industrial goods.

Asked by a reporter at the White House whether the offer was enough for him to back down on 20 percent duties on imports, Trump said: “No, it’s not.”

“The European Union’s been really tough over the years. We have a [trade] deficit with the European Union of $350 billion and it’s going to disappear fast,” Trump said. “And one of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they’re going to have to buy our energy from us ... They can buy it, we can knock off $350 billion in one week.”

On April 2, Trump announced a minimum 10 percent tariff on all trading partners, as well as higher levies on about 60 nations identified by the administration as “worst offenders” in trade imbalances with the United States. China topped the list.

The 27-nation EU bloc is currently facing 25 percent import tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars, with tariffs of 20 percent due to kick in from April 9 for almost all other goods under Trump’s new policy of responding in kind to countries that he says impose high barriers to U.S. imports.

On Monday evening, the Commission proposed its first retaliatory tariffs of 25 percent on a range of U.S. imports from dental floss to diamonds.

The list was shortened after pressure from member states, with bourbon, wine, and dairy—from the major wine and spirit-exporting nations of France and Italy—removed after Trump threatened a 200 percent counter-tariff on EU alcoholic drinks.

The bloc will start collecting the tariffs on April 15, with a second tranche starting a month later.

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said on Monday: “While the EU remains open to, and strongly prefers, negotiation, we will not wait endlessly.”

Laurent Saint-Martin, the French foreign trade minister, said the bloc could use the EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI), a trade measure that took effect in December 2023 but has not yet been used.

It allows the EU to target U.S. services or limit U.S. companies’ access to its public procurement tenders.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris described the ACI as “very much the nuclear option.”

Energy

The EU is already a major buyer of U.S. energy. Trump has previously said that he is determined to make the EU an even bigger purchaser of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Last year, he issued a warning to the EU threatening to impose tariffs on the bloc unless it buys large enough quantities of American oil and gas to make up for its trade deficit with the United States.

“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,” Trump wrote in a Dec. 20 post on Truth Social. “Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!”

EU leaders are prioritizing a renewables-first energy approach, along with comprehensive legislation aimed at making the bloc the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The United States maintained its position in 2024 as a leading supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe, which imported 43.8 million tons.

That amount is expected to increase under Trump’s pledge to maximize U.S. oil and natural gas production.

Reuters, Tom Ozimek, and Guy Birchall contributed to this report.