European counter -forest could affect American assets for a hundred billion euros if the negotiations between the two banks of the Atlantic failed. The European Commission, after days of study away from the spotlight, prepared its “gun” to be put on the talks table with the Trump administration.
Time holds, the statements of the American president continue not to reassure Brussels, e Ursula von der Leyen cannot afford not to be found ready in case of “no deal”. A hypothesis that, at Palazzo Berlaymont, nobody hopes but nobody, at the same time, can exclude with certainty. On Wednesday, to the permanent representatives of the 27 member countries, the plan that the Commission has in Cascina to respond to any mutual duties – vertical and horizontal – of Washington will therefore be briefly illustrated.
The list of products to be hit will be the subject of an additional consultation with the capital, to be concluded within a month. The value of the US goods that the EU could hit was however revealed by the Bloomberg Agency: one hundred billion euros, or about 113 billion dollars. The package is intended to be used only if the current efforts to avoid the US duties of 20% had to fail, and is disconnected from the countermeasures put in place by the Commission to respond to the American rates on steel and aluminum and frozen last April ten to stretch the hand to the negotiation with the USA.
A negotiation that, at the moment, continues above all on a technical level: the number one of the General Commerce Management is flying overseas, this time Sabine Weyand For interviews that, at the moment, are neither politicians nor formal. Something could move in the next few days. The EU, in fact, is not only preparing its bazooka in the event of a commercial war, but is also outlining the offer to meet the requests for Donald Trump.
Speaking the Commissioner to Commerce to the Plenary of the Eurocine Maros Sefcovic He illustrated the key points of the proposal: zero rates for zero for all industrial goods, including strategic sectors such as cars and cars parts; A joint commitment to deal with global surcharge in strategic industrial sectors, such as steel and aluminum; A greater resilience of EU and US supply chains in sectors such as semiconductors and pharmaceutical products; The return to a barriers without transatlantic trade.
“Now it is necessary that the United States demonstrate their willingness to make progress towards a fair and balanced solution,” explained Sefcovic, ensuring that, in the face of the “contrary winds” of the Atlantic, the EU, however, cannot remain firm. If the six investigations in progress in Washington brought “at unjustified rates, another 170 billion euros of EU exports would be affected. Overall, about 549 billion euros of goods, or 97% of the total export to the USA “would be damaged, remarked the EU commissioner. Monstrous figures that are leading Brussels to accelerate the search for alternative partners. Funishing the Gulf countries and Southeast Asia first of all, but also looking at home: on May 19, a united UE-REGNO summit will be held in London which, in the European neighborhood, judge very important.