Trump Administration Prepares List of Spanish Goods for Potential Embargo

The Trump administration is preparing a list of Spanish goods to potentially embargo, after President Donald Trump ordered officials to cut off trade with the European nation Thursday morning.

The Treasury Department will be working with the U.S. trade representative and Commerce Department to provide Trump “a menu of Spanish products that may be embargoed in the coming days,” a U.S.official said via email.

Such a move would potentially blow up the trade deal the U.S. struck with the European Union last year. Spain is a member of the 27-country bloc. The European Parliament recently passed legislation implementing the terms of the deal that includes a clause allowing the bloc to pull out if any breach of what is known as the Turnberry Agreement.

“The process of putting tariffs on stuff from Spain is not that hard,” said Chad Bown , former chief economist for the State Department under President Joe Biden . “What would this mean for the Turnberry Deal? I think it would be devastating for that … [it] would probably spell the end of that agreement.”

Trump issued the call to block trade with Spain Wednesday morning in Ankara, Turkey, on the sidelines of the NATO Summit, citing Madrid’s refusal to endorse the transatlantic alliance’s mandate for member countries to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense by 2035.

“I didn’t speak to Spain. Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore,” he told reporters, before turning to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and saying, “I’d like you to cut it off.”

It’s not the first time Trump has made the threat. In March, the president said he had instructed Bessent to “cut off all dealings” with Madrid after the Spanish government blocked the U.S. from using jointly-operated bases to attack Iran. Both Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer agreed at the time that Trump had the legal power to enact an embargo, but despite saying they would prepare options for the president, neither agency took formal action.

Trump also said last fall he would impose tariffs on Spain if it did not raise its defense spending.

“Last October there had been some work done on this,” a person familiar with internal Trump administration deliberations said, referring to a review of policy options with regards to trade with Spain. “I think they’re gonna pull that off the shelf.”

“They can do the embargo, and the Supreme Court didn’t touch what constitutes an emergency,” the person added, referring to the court’s February ruling striking down a large tranche of Trump ’s tariffs imposed under a 1977 emergency law. “So, I think on those fronts, they’re in pretty good shape.”

An embargo puts legal restrictions on imports and exports between two countries, though the scope of the covered products can vary. The U.S. has imposed trade embargoes on countries before, including on Cuba and North Korea, but it requires a declaration of a national emergency and evidence that the country facing the embargo poses an “unusual or extraordinary threat” to U.S. interests. If challenged in court, it would be hard for the administration to demonstrate that Spain, a NATO treaty ally, represents such a threat.

And contrary to White House assertions, the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in its February ruling did not affirm the president’s ability to impose an embargo. However, Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh argued in their dissenting opinions that Congress has delegated embargo powers to the president.

While the U.S. trade relationship with Spain is relatively small — it imported more than $21 billion in goods from Spain in 2025 and exported $26 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — action against Madrid risks upending the U.S.-EU deal to lower the bloc’s tariffs on U.S. industrial products in exchange for a flat 15 percent U.S. tariff rate on goods coming from EU member countries.

The EU approved the lower tariff rate this month, but included several snap-back provisions that would reimpose duties on U.S. goods if the Trump administration were to increase tariffs or take other action against any member country.

“We are taking note. Everybody knows what would be at stake if any of these threats become real,” said one European Commission official. “It’s not the first threat.”

Another EU official added: “We hope it’s as it happened before, just something that was said, but nothing that really happens.” They were granted anonymity because they are not cleared to speak to the press.

Asked about the risk to the agreement with the EU later Wednesday in Ankara, Trump appeared dismissive. “We’re going to see what happens with the EU. They’ve treated us very badly for years, and they took advantage … of the United States for years,” he told reporters after a meeting with the president of Syria.

The collapse of the Turnberry deal, however, could lead to a new trade war affecting roughly $1 trillion worth of commerce between the U.S. and Europe.