“I think what Spain did is terrible, we will negotiate with them and they will pay double. We will force them to pay, Spain wants a free ride and I will force them to pay in another way,” Donald Trump said at a press conference at the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

The US President added that he will “negotiate directly” with Pedro Sánchez's government and that Madrid “will pay more that way.”

The position comes at a time when the US is negotiating with the European Union on the application of reciprocal tariffs of 20%, which Brussels hopes to lower, and only within the scope of which Madrid could be covered.

Pedro Sánchez's response

Quoted by the Spanish press, Pedro Sánchez says that “Spain is a country of solidarity, committed to the member states of the Alliance, but it is also sovereign, and that is the balance we find in the declaration we agreed with the 32 member states of the Atlantic Alliance, including the United States.”

The Prime Minister added that trade policies should be discussed between Washington and the European Commission, which acts on behalf of all Member States.

“We are in a single market customs union and trade policy is negotiated by Brussels on behalf of all Member States,” he added.