In a conciliatory tone, Maros Sefcovic added: “It takes two hands to clap,” indicating that the arrangement must come from both sides
The Commerce Commissioner of (EU), Maros Sefcovic, said on Monday (14) that the block still sees space for an understanding with the About tariffs, but warned that if conversations failed, retaliation measures are on the radar. “We want to negotiate tariffs with the US first, but everything is on the table, including retaliation,” he said in a press conference after a Block meeting in Brussels. According to Sefcovic, the EU ministers of economics made it clear that “it will be necessary to adopt rebalancing measures if negotiations with the US would fail.” He stressed, however, that “we still believe that the solution of this problem should be through negotiations.” In conciliatory tone, he added: “It takes two hands to clap,” indicating that the arrangement must come on both sides.
The Commissioner recalled that all the largest US business partners received a letter from the president with the new tariffs and that there is still “there is conditions to negotiate.” Sefcovic has confirmed that he will speak on Monday with US officials, including Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, and Jamieson Greer, commercial representative (USTR), about the progress of conversations. “We were very close to a trade agreement in principle with the US,” he recalled. But he stressed that “any agreement with the US should be acceptable to the members of our block.” While keeping the Washington dialogue channel open, the EU also seeks to diversify its markets. “We are bending our efforts to open new markets,” he said. In this context, Sefcovic said the European bloc is in “intense negotiations with India and I think we can end discussions by the end of this year.” He also classified as positive the current moment of conversations with Saudi Arabia.
Posted by Luisa Cardoso
*With information from AFP
