Von der Leyen: “Europe has all the instruments on the table to respond to US tariffs” | International | EUROtoday

Brussels doesn’t rule out any business weapon of its arsenal to answer the huge tariffs that the United States planks to announce this Wednesday: from replicating with tariff will increase to use taxes to companies or different extraordinary response. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has cleared the doubts that could possibly be on the eve of Washington’s announcement: “Europe has many letters [para responder]from commerce to technology, through the size of our market. Our response is constructed about this force to replicate firmly. All instruments are on the table. ”Before the MEPs, the German has pressured on Tuesday that Brussels prefers the negotiated exit, however that this arrives” from a position of strength. “

For the EU, opening a business warfare is a mistake. No one advantages from her. “Tariffs are taxes that citizens will pay,” stated Von der Leyen on the Strasbourg headquarters of the European Parliament. “They are taxes for Americans on food and medicines. Tariffs will accelerate inflation. Exactly, the opposite of what we want. US factories will pay more for their European components, which will destroy jobs. Create a bureaucratic monster with new procedures in customs. It will be a nightmare for American importers,” stated the German Drinking state of affairs.

The phrases of Von der Leyen have arrived on the MEPs in Strasbourg, at the start of this Tuesday’s session within the Eurocamara. The president of the Commission has reiterated that Brussels intends to discover a negotiated exit to the business battle opened by Donald Trump, however has pressured that she approaches these conversations from “a position of force.” “We will carefully evaluate tomorrow’s ads to calibrate our response. Our goal is a negotiated solution. But, of course, if necessary, we will protect our interests, our people and our companies. […] Europe has not started this confrontation. We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but we have a forceful plan to do so if necessary, ”he continued.

Von der Leyen has not dropped to the element of which arsenal is prepared to make use of or, a minimum of, he has not defined it. But it’s implicitly very clear in its speech that the Commission considers a really big selection of measures in opposition to the United States. In it, there’s the opportunity of rising tariffs on merchandise that come from the United States, in step with what could be a extra conventional response inside a business warfare; And the opportunity of making use of taxes to the exchanges of companies (monetary, technological, digital, mental property rights) can be included, one thing that now doesn’t apply any kind of charge or tariff and, even, the choice of closing the EU market to sure North American items or companies.

Unconventional measures

If Brussels selected to incorporate such a countermelted within the response, he would have chosen a a lot much less typical route than these explored thus far. And this feature would imply that the European Commission has been inclined to launch the anticoration instrument, a authorized device that was offered in the course of the previous legislature, within the mild of the expertise lived in the course of the first mandate of Donald Trump, which permits to reply with punishments to the companies, hit an organization or a selected sector and even veto the participation of firms of a sure nation in public tenders. To resort to that device or to not do it is among the inside debates that the fee itself maintains and that additionally happens within the personal sector.

The concern for Trump’s tariff menace extends via the states. The governor of the Bank of Spain, José Luis Escrivá, acknowledged that there’s “a lot of concern” for the business charges of the United States, which have an effect on quite a few sectors. “Logically, there is a lot of concern worldwide and, of course, European and all the economic policy decision makers, because we are facing a paradigm shift of how commercial relations are filed in the world,” stated the governor, in line with Europa Press. This paradigm change in business relations is, in line with Escrivá, “a very large distorting potential”, with results that may be unfavorable on world financial progress, and doubtless, to a higher extent, for the United States itself. In addition, the implications it has on inflation must be valued. “It is a very relevant issue and concern to consider,” stated the governor.

The Government of Spain, however, is dedicated to dialogue to protect a business relationship with the United States “overly beneficial” for each events. This was acknowledged on Tuesday, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, who stated that, if needed, the EU will use the devices accessible to protect the integrity of his single market. He has pressured that he hopes to “be able to solve everything through dialogue.” And he added: “This is not what the EU wants, Europeans believe in free trade and that any difference that may exist between commercial partners can be resolved through dialogue.” Albares recalled that the connection between Europeans and North Americans “is the largest commercial relationship on the planet.”

The chief of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has demanded from the EU a coordinated and reinforcement response of the inner market in order that the influence of Trump’s business warfare is the least doable. “I think, if it occurs, Europe must respond in a coordinated manner and reinforcing the internal market so that the impact is as much as possible for the economy of the 450 million citizens that we live in the European Union,” he stated.

The business relationship between the EU and the US is probably the most intense on the planet. The Numbers of the US administration encrypt imports and exports of products at 975,000 million {dollars} (900,000 million euros), with a balanced steadiness of the EU of 235,571 million {dollars}. The scenario goes across the companies, since on this discipline it’s the United States that has a optimistic steadiness, of 75,617 million {dollars}.

When Trump analyzes the business relationship from Washington, he all the time opts to deal with his gap with the EU targeted completely on the change of products, underlining how unfair he’s, in his opinion, this case. Brussels, however, all the time provides what occurs within the discipline of companies to underline that the imbalance just isn’t so nice or, after all, unfair because the Trump administration desires to imagine.