Trump Threatens to Double Trade Costs With Spain Due to NATO Spending Conflict

Spain has refused to meet NATO’s 5% defense spending target, and Trump has threatened to double its trade costs.

Spain has refused to meet NATO’s new defense spending target of 5% of GDP, and US President Donald Trump has threatened to make the country “pay twice as much” in an upcoming trade agreement.

Trump harshly criticized Spain’s rejection of the benchmark in his remarks on Wednesday, even though the increase was supported by NATO as a whole. Spain and I are negotiating a trade agreement. He described Spain’s position as “very terrible” and charged that the nation had not fulfilled its share of the alliance’s defense budget. “We’re going to make them pay twice as much,” he said.

Trump has been pushing for a significant increase in defense and security spending, which NATO leaders approved earlier today in an effort to increase the alliance’s military readiness by 2035. Although the majority of members accepted the objective, Spain distinguished itself by claiming that it could still fulfill its responsibilities without reaching the 5% threshold.

But there could be serious diplomatic and legal challenges to Trump’s threat. Spain does not engage in its own trade negotiations as a member of the European Union. Instead, Trump would have to sway the terms of a larger US-EU deal to specifically target Spain because the European Commission negotiates trade on behalf of all 27 EU members.

European officials have yet to formally respond to Trump’s comments, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy declined to comment.