Maria Bartiromo believes Trump will strike trade deal with Europe this year
by Julia MustoPresident Trump will clinch a trade deal with Europe within the next year, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo said Friday.
Appearing on "America's Newsroom" with host Sandra Smith, Bartiromo said that in her conversation with the president at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the president told her he was already negotiating with the Europeans for a deal.
"Remember, he had that meeting on the sidelines in Davos with the head of the European Commission?" she asked. "What he told...[Jean-Claude Juncker] is that we need Europe to buy more agricultural products. We have been treated unfairly. We have a trade deficit with Europe and we want to make sure that you step up your purchases."
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Bartiromo told Smith the president said Europe would "have to do it."
"And, he told me, 'They have to do it. There's no way they're not going to do it because if they don't do it, I am going to be putting tariffs in place on products coming from Europe,'" she said.
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"And, we know that we already see some tariffs on certain things as a result of the subsidy situation with AirBus," Bartiromo noted.
In December, a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel ruled Monday that the European Union had not complied with an order to end illegal subsidies for plane-maker Airbus, which prompted the Trump administration to impose tariffs on nearly $7.5 billion worth of EU goods in October.
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Just this Wednesday, the president signed the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA).
The USMCA, the biggest trade deal of all-time, covers more than $1.3 trillion of commerce and is the second major trade deal secured by the Trump administration this year. The agreement has already been ratified by Mexico, but not yet by Canada.
The agreement is expected to create 80,000 new jobs tied to the auto industry and bring in up to $30 billion of new investment in the sector. The pact will also open new markets for American wheat, poultry and eggs, among other things.
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However, Bartiromo said that if the president starts putting tariffs on products coming from Europe, it "does jeopardize this incredible economy that he has been able to lead with 50-year-unemployment."
The Fox Business host said that a real deal is a wait-and-see.
"I don't think he's going to do that easily but he certainly wants to do a deal," she said.