True Or False? Trump’s Charges Against the EU
According to Trump, the EU was formed to “screw the U.S.” What are the facts of U.S.-EU trade? On closer inspection, the accounts are balanced.
March 7, 2025
The record according to Donald Trump:
- “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they take almost nothing, and we take everything from them — millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products.”
- “The European Union was formed to screw the United States — that’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.”
The euro area has a net surplus in its trade balance of goods with the United States.
Over the past four quarters (Q3 2023 to Q3 2024), the value of goods produced in the euro area and sold to the United States exceeded the value of goods imported from the United States to the euro area by €203 billion.
At the same time, the euro area ran a net deficit in its trade of services with the United States.
The value of services produced in the United States and sold to the euro area was €146 billion higher than the value of services exported from the euro area to the United States.
While Trump is correct in stating that Europe sells more goods to the United States than it buys from it, he fails to mention that the opposite is true for services.
Why the current U.S. President focuses solely on trade in goods is unclear. After all, both goods and services generate income, create jobs and contribute to economic well-being — hence they are equally important.
Looking at both goods and services, the United States still runs a trade deficit with Europe of €57 billion (= €203 billion – €146 billion).
However, that amount is negligible relative to the size of the U.S. economy. In 2024, U.S. GDP amounted to $29 trillion. That means the U.S. trade deficit with Europe accounts for less than 0.2% of U.S. GDP.
When taking all items on the current account into account, the overall EU-U.S. account balances.
Moreover, when looking at international flows of funds, what truly matters is not just the trade balance in goods and services, but the overall current account.
Here, Europe pays €49 billion more in financial income and wages to the United States than it receives.
Thus, for all but €8 billion the euro area’s current account with the United States is effectively balanced (€8 billion = €203 billion – €146 billion – €49 billion).
Sources: Rangvid’s Blog, ECB, U.S. Treasury, Statista, European Commission
Takeaways
While Trump is correct in stating that Europe sells more goods to the U.S. than it buys from it, he fails to mention that the opposite is true for services.
Ultimately, for all but €8 billion the euro area’s account with the U.S. is effectively balanced.
Over the past four quarters (Q3 2023 to Q3 2024), the value of goods produced in the euro area and sold to the U.S. exceeded the value of goods imported from the U.S. to the euro area by €203 billion.
Moreover, over the past four quarters (Q3 2023 to Q3 2024), the euro area ran a sizeable net deficit in its trade of services with the U.S. amounting to €146 billion.
