Trump slams trade relationship with European Union: 'We have some very big complaints'

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday continued to take aim at the European Union for what he claims is an unequal trade relationship.

"From the standpoint of America, the EU treats us very, very unfairly, very badly," Trump said in a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

After his inauguration on Monday, Trump's second term has been a key topic of conversation at Davos this year — particularly given his threats of trade tariffs on the EU, China, Mexico, Canada and beyond.

Echoing previous comments, Trump said in his Davos address: "They make it very difficult to bring products into Europe, and yet they expect to be selling and they do sell their products in the United States. So we have, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of deficits with the EU, and nobody's happy with it. And we're going to do something about it."

"We have some very big complaints with the EU," he continued.

Trump in December said the EU would face "tariffs all the way" unless it increased its purchases of U.S. oil and gas, something European officials have expressed a willingness to do.

He added on Thursday: "They want to be able to compete better, and you can't compete when you can't go through the approval process faster. There's no reason why it can't go faster ... I'm trying to be constructive, because I love Europe."

The U.S. is the biggest recipient of EU goods, accounting for nearly a fifth of the bloc's exports. The U.S.′ biggest trade deficit with the EU is in machinery and vehicles, with a gap totaling 102 billion euros ($106 billion) in 2023. In energy, Washington had a trade surplus with the European bloc worth 70 billion euros; it also has a significant trade surplus in services.

This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.