Donald Trump last night rejected a European Union proposal to eliminate tariffs on industrial goods, pouring cold water on Brussels’ attempt to defuse transatlantic trade tensions after the US imposed sweeping levies last week.
The EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said earlier that US had been offered a "zero-for-zero tariffs" deal, which the bloc had agreed with other trading partners.
Trump responded bluntly that "zero-zero tariffs were not going to happen".
He said: "The European Union’s been very bad to us.
"They’re going to have to buy their energy from us, because they need it and they’re going to have to buy it from us. They can buy it – we can knock off $350 billion in one week."
Last Wednesday, Trump imposed a blanket 10% tariff on all goods imported into the US, with higher levies on countries that have a large trade deficit with the US.
Europe had already responded to US traiffs on steel, aluminium and automobiles with some initial "countermeasures" and von der Leyen is consulting with national leaders and industry on a further response.
China, which has been hit by a 34% tariff, rising to 54% on some goods, retaliated last Friday with a 34% tariff on US goods, which Trump threatened yesterday to counter with a further 50% extra levy and seen China push back today that it will "fight to the end".