The European Commissioner for Commerce, Maros Sefcovic, took a good disgust in which he announced 30% tariffs on European products from August 1. First, because it has been negotiating months with Washington and believed that the principle of agreement was possible last week, until the Rate He woke him from that dream. And second because, “being honest, an idea of 30% tariff is effectively prohibitive for mutual trade,” he warned on Monday.
This idea, that some tariffs of 30% “practically prohibit trade,” the European negotiator has repeated several times upon arrival at the EU Council in Brussels, where. There he will explain the current status of the conversations and collect the support of all or almost all – the Hungary of the Ultra Viktor Orbán has already been unmarked, as is his custom – to try to achieve.
The general support has made it clear upon arrival Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Foreign Minister of Denmark, a country that presides over the Council in the second half of this year: “[Sefcovic] He has done an exceptional job in very difficult circumstances (…) he needs all the support we can give. ”
Budapest is again the loose verse in the European Unity message: “We regret that the commission has not been able to achieve an agreement with the Americans, we believe that they are willing and interested in concluding an agreement with the EU and the fact that it is not yet ready shows the failure of the commission when responding to the aggressive negotiating tactics of the United States Magyar, who has called the Ursula Von der Executive read to “harden” and adapt their tactics to those of Washington: “The commission should be firmer, efficient and assertive to ensure that European interests prevail at the end of this process,” said the Hungarian, who, however, has rejected any immediate imposition of contramedes and has urged to recognize the “new reality imposed” By Washington, which includes the high possibility, he said, of having to accept an “asymmetric” agreement.
Beyond Hungary, to the meeting this Monday the protagonists come willing to paraphrase the classics. “If you want peace, prepare for war,” emphasized Danish Rasmussen. “And there we are.” This means that, in addition to gathering the support of the capitals, the commission has to give an account of the degree of preparation of tariff responses and replicas if the failure arrives.
There, Sefcovic will break down with the ministers the second list of products that the commission presented a couple of months ago and. That list, after the public consultation to Member States and interested parties, would have been reduced to 72,000 million, according to knowledgeable sources of the process.
If that second replica is finally approved, it would be added to which it is suspended, which is equivalent to about 20,000 million. That is, the EU response, for the moment, would be somewhat greater than 90,000 million. That would affect just under a third of European imports from the United States, which implies that the replica of the twenty -seven would be very far from the blow of Washington, which reaches 70% of EU’s exports to the other side of the Atlantic.
However, in the European Defense Strategy for this commercial war there is not only the return of blows. The expansion of destinations for exports and, therefore, of more commercial alliances are also sought. “The US represents about 13% of global trade. So there is another 87% and I think we all see opportunities in other parts of the world to hold the hand to Europe,” said Danish minister Rasmussen a day after the European Commission announced. At the Danish presidency on duty, Rasmussen has stressed, it is also “to make Mercosur cross the finish line” before the end of the year.
