US and Iran to talk next week; Trump threatens Spain for defence miss
President Donald Trump assailed Spain for refusing to agree to new defence spending targets adopted by NATO and suggested the country could be penalised by facing tariffs twice as high from the US.
'You're the only country that is not paying. I don't know what the problem is,' Trump said at the NATO summit at The Hague when asked about Spain balking at paying 5 per cent of their GDP on defence.
'We'll make it up. You know, we're going to do, we're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them pay twice as much. And I'm actually serious about that,' Trump added.
Spain's benchmark stock index extended its losses after Trump's remarks, trading down 1.6 per cent. The index was down about 1.3 per cent prior to the comments. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index, the worst-performing major European benchmark on Wednesday, was down 0.7 per cent.
'We downplay Trump's comments and we emphasise our commitment to NATO,' a spokesperson for the Spanish government said.
Spain is part of the European Union, which is racing to clinch a trade deal with Washington before tariffs on nearly all its exports to the US jump to 50per cent on July 9. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, handles trade matters for the 27-member bloc — individual member states don't negotiate trade deals on their own.
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