EU categorically rejects U.S. threat to ban diesel exports

The European Union has categorically rejected the United States’ threat to ban diesel exports to Europe if European countries do not open their emergency fuel reserves, as Al Jazeera reports. “The EU completely rejects” the U.S. threat, European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said on Friday at a press conference in Brussels.

“A ban would serve no one. It would undermine our trust in the United States as a reliable energy supplier,” Itkonen said, responding to President Donald Trump’s demand that Europe immediately release its diesel reserves to bring down rising prices caused by the war with Iran.

Trump had said on Thursday that the U.S. could ask European countries to open their diesel reserves, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on Europeans to tap emergency reserves “immediately”. According to Al Jazeera, European countries are holding emergency talks over the possibility of a U.S. export ban, while governments are considering releasing reserves to ease pressure on consumers and farmers.

The clash comes at a moment when diesel prices are reaching record levels in both the U.S. and Europe, due to the disruption of supplies from the eight-month war with Iran. A day earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the energy crisis in a phone call with Trump, stressing the need for cooperation with the International Energy Agency to ease price pressure.