The EU will seek to reach an agreement with the US on new tariffs

The European Union will continue putting pressure on the United States “until the end” to reach an agreement that avoids the application of the tariffs that the US administration wants to impose as of this Friday on exports from Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom for subsidies to Airbus, or at least to “freeze” the charges.

This was stated at a press conference by the Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, when asked about the formal authorization granted this Monday by the World Trade Organization (WTO), a step that, in the opinion of the Swedish official, “does not change anything”.

“We will continue to pressure the Americans to see if we can get an agreement. Or at least sit together to freeze tariffs for now”, she said.

Malmström warned in a letter to his American counterpart, Robert Lighthizer, that “it would be better to sit down and try to find a solution,” because these new assessments would affect the economy, consumers, importers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

“This is the message we have sent, so far without results,” said the Swedish commissioner, who assumed that, if the US finally applying the additional tariffs, Brussels will have to convene the Ministers of Commerce of the Twenty Eight to discuss the steps to follow.

Malmström issued these statements after presenting the third report of the Community Executive on the implementation of the block’s free trade agreements with other countries, which provoked trade exchanges increase by 3.2% last year.

In particular, exports of European agricultural food products to the countries the EU has free trade agreements in force grew by 2.2% in 2018, while exports of industrial goods expanded by another 2%.

K. Tovar

Source: dpa