Trump says European Union must buy U.S. oil and gas in trade ultimatum

US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he has told the European Union it must reduce its trade gap with the US over oil and gas purchases or face the fees

“I told the European Union that they must compensate their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large-scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way,” Trump posted on his platform Truth Social shortly after 1 am. ET.

According to The figures of the United Statesthe country’s trade deficit in goods and services with the European Union was $131.3 billion in 2022.

A senior EU diplomat, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic, told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro that they were not surprised by Trump’s comment on Friday and that energy was a “good option” to buy more American products.

Another EU official, who also did not want to be named for the same reason, told Amaro that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Trump last night.

The comment comes after EU heads of state held their last meeting of the year on Thursday, during which the topic of Europe-US relations was discussed.

“The message is clear: the European Union is committed to continuing to work with the United States, in a pragmatic way, to strengthen transatlantic ties,” said European Council President António Costa after the meeting.

Trump has threatened huge tariffs on US trading partners including China, Mexico and Canada a signature part of his presidential campaign — and he continued the narrative as he prepares to take office, despite economists warn of domestic inflation risks.

Analysts say there is high uncertainty about the extent of tariffs that Trump will be willing – or able – to follow through on, and how much of his rhetoric is a starting point for deals.

Enrico Letta, former Italian prime minister and dean of the IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that the EU had to be prepared to respond to the threat of Trump.

“I think it’s a transactional approach, we have to respond to this transactional approach. [Trump] it mixes energy and tariffs on goods, manufacturing and so on. I think it’s wrong because the two topics are completely different,” Letta said.

“If the deal is proposed by Trump – such an asymmetric deal on topics that are not related to each other – I think we will do the same.”

“Considering that the most asymmetric part is the relationship from the financial side, we have to start to consider that maybe responding to the financial side could be a solution,” he added.

The United States was the largest recipient of EU goods in 2023, counting 19.7% of its exports.

The EU has already indicated that it expects to buy more energy from the US in the coming years. Last month, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen he told reporters that replacing imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) with volumes from the United States would be cheaper, and that the EU will seek to engage and negotiate on the matter when Trump takes office in 2025.

CNBC has reached out to the European Commission for comment on Trump’s remarks.