These products could be impacted if Trump ends trade with Spain

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President Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. will cut off trade with Spain, a move that would impact billions in goods across a swath of industries if carried out.

“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore by the way,” Trump said alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey.

“I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits,” the president later said to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was in the room.

If the Trump administration were to impose an embargo barring American businesses from doing business with their Spanish counterparts, it would impact transactions with one of the country’s top 25 trading partners.

In April, the top U.S. exports to Spain were crude petroleum, petroleum gas, along with vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). The platform added that petroleum gas exports from the U.S. to Spain were down by 59.6 percent in April relative to a year prior.

The U.S. exported more than $2.2 billion worth of goods to Spain and imported more than $1.8 billion worth of goods from the European nation in May, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

That surplus reflects trends since the start of 2022, as the U.S. has sold more goods to Spain than it has bought in each of the last four full years. But in every year from 2012 through 2021, the U.S. ran a trade deficit with Spain, buying more goods than it sold.

The $1.8 billion-plus in goods Spanish businesses imported from the U.S. in May made Spain the 24th largest importer of American goods that month, according to a Tuesday report from the Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

Spain also accounted for the 22nd largest recipient of U.S. goods that month, roughly in line with its ranking throughout the entirety of 2025 –– which was 23rd –– based on the data from the Census Bureau and BEA.

That same month, the top imports from Spain were paintings, electrical transformers and packaged medicaments, the OEC noted.

Spanish direct investment in the U.S. surpassed $87.4 billion in 2024, making it the ninth-highest foreign investor among European nations, according to the BEA. Direct U.S. investment in Spain, meanwhile, was less than $33.9 billion that year.

As for whether Trump could impose an embargo with Spain, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) allows him to do so — if he declares a national emergency with respect to Spain. In the past, U.S. presidents declared national emergencies to issue embargoes on the likes of Cuba and North Korea.

Trump previously invoked the IEEPA in issuing his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs last year. However, the Supreme Court ruled in February his use of the statute was unlawful, striking down those levies.

In a dissenting opinion to the high court’s ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the IEEPA gave the president the power to impose embargoes on other countries.

“The plaintiffs and the Court acknowledge that IEEPA authorizes the President to impose quotas or embargoes on foreign imports—meaning that a President could completely block some or all imports,” Kavanaugh wrote.

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