Trump can halt Spain trade with IEEPA, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs law: Greer

Americans may not need to start panic-buying Ibérico ham — yet.

President Donald Trump may not follow through on his demand for the U.S. to completely sever trade with Spain — but he could if he wanted to, using the same law behind his failed “reciprocal” tariffs, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Thursday.

Even though Spain is a member of the European Union, Trump could single it out using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, Greer told reporters at the White House.

The law empowers the president to impose certain economic sanctions in response to a declared national emergency. Trump asserted that the law authorized him to impose individualized tariff rates on nearly every country, but the Supreme Court in February struck down those import duties.

“Everyone has heard of IEEPA, famously in connection with our, our tariffs over the past year, but the reality is, IEEPA has been in place for many decades,” Greer said Thursday.

“It is currently an authority that is used to limit trade with places like North Korea,” Greer explained.

He said that even though the Supreme Court found IEEPA did not support Trump’s tariffs, its ruling “highlighted that IEEPA clearly says you can prohibit trade, you can do certain things.”

But the trade official stressed that while Trump “for sure can” take that step, he may no longer want to.

That’s because Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently had a “good meeting” to discuss “core issues about payment,” Greer said.

“I’ve heard positive developments on that front on Spain,” he said.

That would be a major shift from just a day earlier, when Trump, clearly angry with Spain’s resistance to boosting its defense spending as part of NATO, abruptly declared he was done dealing with the country in any way.

“Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain,” Trump said during a media appearance at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Top exports from Spain to the U.S. include refined petroleum, pharmaceuticals and electrical transformers, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

“Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits,” said Trump, who was seated next to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Trump has demanded that all NATO allies raise their defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product to spread the alliance’s cost burdens more evenly. Most of the members have agreed to raise their spending targets — but Spain has rejected the NATO proposal as “unreasonable.”

Trump himself softened his tone toward Spain after departing Turkey.

“I did have issues, and I still do, but Spain came back all the way today. Spain was very generous today,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on the way back to the U.S.

Asked what Spain did to get back in his good graces, Trump, after a pause, said the country “honored a request for lots of payments.”

It was unclear what Spain had specifically agreed to, if anything. Spain’s U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the remarks from Trump and Greer.

This week wasn’t the first time this year that Trump and Sánchez have butted heads. In March, after the U.S. began its war against Iran, Sánchez criticized the strikes, and Trump also threatened to cut off trade then.

Asked on Thursday if Trump is no longer seeking a Spanish trade divorce in light of the meeting with Sánchez, Greer said, “I don’t want to get ahead of him … but it sounds like it was very positive.”

Pressed for clarity, Greer said Trump “has a number of options,” and noted the president has previously weighed in on Spain’s spending.

Greer added that he is in touch with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who traveled with the president to Turkey.

“I don’t think there’s anything imminent on that,” Greer said regarding a halt to trading with Spain.