The European Union again ensures that it will firmly react to the new tariffs announced by Donald Trump, although it has not yet responded to the imposition of a 25% rate to steel and aluminum. The European Commission considers that the US intention to impose new tariffs with the VAT excuse, which is an indirect consumption tax that Europeans also pay, it is a “step in the wrong direction.” “Tariffs have no winners. Unjustified tariffs for the European Union will not be unanswered. We will take clear and proportionate countermeasures, ”reiterated Ursula von der Leyen.
“Commercial wars and punitive tariffs do not work for anyone. Tariffs are taxes. They drive inflation. They hit workers, companies and income. They are affecting important supply chains between the two sides of the Atlantic. Tariffs have no winners, ”said the president of the European Commission. However, the community executive still does not have an estimate of damage in economic terms that would mean the introduction of new tariffs.
What the spokesman, Olof Gill, has assured is that this week there have been “political contacts” to try to “find solutions” and that this work will continue in the coming weeks. In the EU they do not rule out that Trump’s movements look, in reality, a negotiated solution to correct the commercial deficit that is, with respect to the EU since the value of its imports is higher than that of its exports.
“The EU will react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers to free and fair trade, even when tariffs are used to question legal and non -discriminatory policies. The EU will always protect companies, workers and European consumers against unjustified tariff measures, ”says Brussels in a statement in which he recalls that the community block is“ one of the most open economies in the world ”, with more than 70 % of imports with zero tariff, while the average tariff that applies to imported goods “remains one of the lowest in the world.”
In a speech at the Munich Security Conference, Von der Leyen has assured that they will use “the tools to safeguard European economic security and interests. One of the instruments that Brussels has is the anti-coercion tool that designed precisely after Trump’s previous mandate to respond to commercial blackmail.
Source: www.eldiario.es
