Spain, United States, and European Union

Obstacles to implementing a U.S. trade cutoff against Spain

It will be hard for the U.S. to make good on Trump's threat. First, the European Union negotiates trade matters as a bloc, and the entire bloc could retaliate against trade actions targeting one of its members.

EU control of bloc trade policy and possible collective retaliation would hinder unilateral U.S. action. A cutoff could disproportionately hurt U.S. exporters because the United States runs a goods-and-services surplus with Spain.