EU considers switching gas supply from Russia to US to stave off tariff war with Trump

The president-elect had pledged to impose import tariffs during his 2024 election campaign

The EU could buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US in an attempt to persuade Donald Trump not to impose damaging import tariffs, the European Commission president has said.
Ursula von der Leyen said the proposed deal would also reduce the EU’s trade surplus with the US, which Mr Trump argues makes the bloc rich while Washington pays for its military security.
Mrs von der Leyen said EU leaders had “touched on” the idea of an LNG deal with Mr Trump during summit discussions in Hungary.
“There are common interests we have,” she said in Budapest, where the EU held its meeting. “We still get a lot of LNG from Russia. Why not replace it with American energy, which is cheaper for us?”
“It’s something where we can get into a discussion,” she added.
Mr Trump pledged during his 2024 election campaign to impose import tariffs in order to address trade imbalances and boost US manufacturing.
The EU has drawn up a list of US products such as Kentucky bourbon for retaliatory tariffs in Republican-led states seen as vulnerable for Trump in the 2026 midterm elections, which would risk escalating into a full-blown trade war.
The European Commission handles trade negotiations on behalf of the bloc’s 27 member states, which have been buying more LNG to replace Russian natural gas after Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
The EU has agreed to ban shipments of Russian LNG by March 2025 but its imports of the super-chilled liquefied gas transported by tankers increased by 11 per cent in the first half of 2024.
In the second quarter of 2024, the US accounted for the largest share of the EU’s LNG imports at 46 per cent. Russia was the second-largest supplier, comprising 16.8 per cent of LNG imports to the EU, a rise from previous years.
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis think tank estimates that EU countries spent €3.5 billion to purchase LNG from Russia during the first six months of 2024, with 87 per cent of that going to France, Spain and Belgium.
In 2018, Mr Trump and then Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed a deal to import more US LNG, which helped ward off new tariffs on EU goods beyond those the then-president imposed on European steel and aluminium.
Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, has been tipped to act as a mediator between the US and EU.
The hard-Right leader says she has a good relationship with Elon Musk, the Trump-backing owner of X, who is expected to join the next US administration.
Ms Meloni said: “I can tell you that I consider Elon Musk an added value at this time.
“A person who has certainly done some extraordinary things, some important things, and I think that he should and can be an interlocutor, a person with whom one can deal.”
Viktor Orban, the Trump-supporting prime minister of Hungary, said the trade issue “will not be easy” because the president-elect is “the master of dealmaking”.
“He is a tough negotiator on trade issues,” he said on Thursday night. “It will be a serious negotiation between the US and EU.”
“We have to stand up and we have to negotiate and at the end of the day we have to make a deal. If we are good enough, we will make a good deal,” he added.
Mr Trump has also vowed to hit Beijing with 60 per cent tariffs, which has sparked fears that Europe could be flooded with Chinese products priced out of the US market.
The EU could also help the US in its trade battles against “common competitor” China if Donald Trump does not hit the bloc with “silly” tariffs, the prime minister of Belgium said.
Alexander De Croo said EU leaders discussed the need for unity in the face of the president-elect’s threats.
“I think we need to have a clear dialogue with him and explain what the effect could be for Europe and the United States,” Mr De Croo said as he arrived for a second day of summit talks in the Hungarian capital on Friday.
“I think that we have a common competitor, and the common competitor we have is China.”
“So if the United States wants to do something about the competitive behaviour of China, where you could ask questions on if it is within WTO [World Trade Organisation] rules, there we can work together.
“We’re actually allies and it would be a bit silly if allies would impose tariffs on each other.
“We should have an open dialogue with the United States on that, but I think our common competitor is China. We’re not competitors with one another.”
A European diplomat also told the Telegraph: “China was broadly identified as an area where the EU could work with the US.”
Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, said: “We are close friends. I would prefer no competition between us in this world with so much insecurity.
“I think we have to stick together but, of course, Europe has to do what Europe has to do.”
The United States was the largest market for EU exports of goods, at 19.7 per cent, in 2023. The US is the EU’s second-largest trading partner for imports.
Putting goods and services together, EU-US trade was worth $1.3 trillion (£1 trillion) in 2022.
Other EU leaders called on Europe to ramp up its arms manufacturing and common defence policy amid fears Mr Trump will cut off support to Ukraine.
“The world is made up of herbivores and carnivores. If we decide to remain herbivores, then the carnivores will win and we will be a market for them,” Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Thursday.
He added: “I think, at the very least, we should choose to become omnivores.”
Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, said Europe would face a more “contractual approach” after Mr Trump’s return to the White House following his victory in this week’s US presidential election.
Speaking on Friday, Mr Borrell said: “The only recipe for Europe to survive is to be more united and to build a stronger union, a sovereign union, able to face the challenges of the world without outsourcing our security to anyone else.
“If you are not at the table, you will be on the menu,” he said and added, “Whatever happens, we have to continue fulfilling our commitment with Ukraine.”
“We need more Europe. We need a stronger Europe,” said Luc Frieden, the prime minister of Luxembourg.
Charles Michel, European council president, and Ursula von der Leyen, European commission president, both spoke with the president-elect on Thursday.
“I passed the message yesterday to Donald Trump, that we would like to cooperate with him in all things, including on Ukraine,” Mr Michel said.
EU leaders are expected to agree a joint statement calling for “an ambitious, robust, open and sustainable trade policy, with the WTO at its core, which defends and promotes the EU’s interests”.
The statement also calls on Europe to increase “our defence readiness and capabilities, in particular by strengthening our defence technological and industrial base accordingly”.
It added: “The commission will present without delay developed options for public and private funding.”