Donald Trump lashed out at the European Union as he took centre stage at Davos.
Addressing political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, the US President spoke about the war in Ukraine, the “economic chaos” he said the US is experiencing and his first few actions after returning to the White House.
However, one of his major targets was the European Union. Responding to a question from Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman following his address, Mr Trump said to have “very big complaints” about Brussels.
Asked how he plans to keep the US markets ahead of Europe, he complained about the “time it takes for things to get approved” in the bloc.
While saying he has “friends in Europe”, he claimed approval from the EU for a project would take “five or six years”.
He added: “I sent the people to the EU to see if they could speed it up to get a simple approval that Ireland gave me in less than a week. I realised right then it was a problem, and I didn’t even bother applying, or pulled it out very quickly if I did.”
The EU, he also claimed, treats the US “very unfairly, very badly”.
He added: “They have a large tax and a VAT tax, and it’s a substantial one. They essentially don’t take our farm products or our cars. They put tariffs on things we want to do.”
He continued: “I love Europe, I love the countries of Europe, but the process is a cumbersome one, and they treat the US very unfairly with the taxes they impose.”
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