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The EU said that it regretted the decision of US President Donald Trump to strike Canada, Mexico and China with radical pricesAnd said that he would respond firmly if a threat to expanding commercial measures to Europe was fulfilled.
Trump triggered one World Trade War This weekend by announcing the measures against three of the largest trade partners in the United States after the EU, which has the largest trade deficit with Washington. The Trump administration has so far been abstained to impose prices in the EU despite Friday President that he would do it “absolutely”.
A spokesperson for the EU executive said that the Bloc’s commercial and investment relationship with the United States was the largest in the world, adding: “There is a lot at stake.”
“The growing tariff measures increase the costs of the company, workers and consumers,” said the spokesperson. “Prices create unnecessary economic disruption and stimulate inflation. They are hurtful on all sides. »»
“For the moment, we do not know any additional rate imposed on EU products,” said the committee on Sunday. “However, the EU would firmly respond to any trading partner who unjustly or arbitrarily imposes the prices on EU’s property.”
EU officials began to develop emergency plans for a Trump trade war last summer.
The initial approach was to negotiate areas where the EU could buy more American products, such as liquefied natural gas, and to reduce the trade deficit that the president regularly decreases. Some capitals also rely on commitments to increase their national defense expenses to try to appease Trump, who wants NATO members to spend 5% of GDP for their soldier.
If all these efforts fail, the commission’s sales department has spent months establishing American import lists, it could reach rights of 50% or more. Brussels has kept details on these secret reprisals measures so as not to cause Trump.
With confirmation hearings for people appointed by current Trump in Washington, the EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, “is ready to engage as soon as his counterparts are confirmed,” said a manager of the ‘ EU.
Klaas Knot, member of the Board of Directors of the European Central Bank, said on Sunday that he expected that countries retaliated against American measures and exacerbate a trade war This would damage all sides.
“Europe will not want to be pushed. We are also a powerful commercial block with 400 million consumers, ”said Knot, president of the Central Bank of the Netherlands on Sunday.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou also urged his colleagues from the EU to remain united if Trump goes ahead with his pricing threat. “If we each look for our own interests, then we disappear,” he told the gallery on Sunday.
“We have playing cards against Trump America,” said Bayrou, mentioning French products in his “excelled” country – such as planes, helicopters and nuclear power plants.
Trump imposed the general prices against Canada and Mexico by invoking the international law on economic powers, which allows him to take measures in response to “an unusual and extraordinary threat”.
He would need to find a justification to use the same tool against the EU, or to impose prices targeting certain industrial sectors for security reasons, as he did during his first presidency.
Additional report by Leila Abboud in Paris
