The EU is ‘nastier than China’ - Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Monday that the European Union is worse than China, just hours after Washington and Beijing reached an agreement to reduce their respective punitive tariffs and ease tensions in their trade war.

"European Union is in many ways nastier than China, okay?" Trump said, as he lashed the bloc. "Oh, they'll come down a lot. You watch. We have all the cards. They treat us very unfairly," News.Az reports citing Politico.

Despite several attempts at negotiating with Washington to remove Trump’s tariffs on European goods, the EU has yet to achieve a breakthrough.

Trump's heated new remarks come as Washington and Beijing agreed to slash so-called reciprocal tariffs against each other.

The U.S. will cut Trump’s recent tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent, while the Chinese side will drop measures from 125 percent to 10 percent. The suspension is temporary for now, lasting 90 days, allowing time for further negotiations.

In early April, Trump imposed a 10 percent baseline tariff, as well as a 25 percent levy on cars and metals, with more tariffs underway, as he seeks to repair perceived injustices in the way Europe has treated the U.S. and bring home manufacturing jobs home that were lost to globalization.