President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would impose tariffs on billions in imports, suddenly escalating a transatlantic skirmish over subsidies to Airbus that is more than a decade old. “The EU has taken advantage of the US on trade for many years. It will soon stop!" he tweeted.

His Twitter outburst rattled a fragile truce between the EU and the United States Trump sparked outrage in Europe last year by imposing steep duties on steel and aluminum and threatening new ones on cars. Trump's remarks were likely to raise the temperature for US and EU negotiators, who have been meeting since last year ahead of proposed trade talks to resolve the dispute.