The president’s threats to slap duties on goods imported from the European Union are part of a pattern of directing the harshest penalties at the United States’ closest allies.

The European Union must remain united and avoid being naive in the face of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to levy tariffs on its products, Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Monday.

While arriving in Maryland from Florida, Trump told the BBC that tariffs on EU goods imported into the US could happen "pretty soon". "They don't take our cars, they don't take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them.