LUXEMBOURG — Spain wants to push for an EU-wide emergency plan to support sectors most affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive tariffs, its trade minister told POLITICO.
“There has to be an EU dimension to the support for firms and industries potentially affected by the Trump administration,” Carlos Cuerpo, Spain’s minister of economy, trade and business, said before a meeting of EU trade ministers on Monday.
His remarks come as the European Union weighs how to retaliate against the 20 percent tariff announced by Trump against the bloc last week — part of tariffs on all of America’s trade partners that will hoist trade barriers to their highest in over a century. The “reciprocal” tariff is due to enter force on Wednesday.
Spain’s agri-food sector is expected to be the worst hit, including producers of olive oil and wine.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last week announced a €14.1 billion government aid package to industry to reduce the domestic impact of Trump’s tariffs.
But Cuerpo said there was a need to replicate such a national plan and widen it to the EU level, and that it would be one of Madrid’s requests during the EU ministerial in Luxembourg.
The European Commission is holding discussions with representatives of the car, pharma, and steel and aluminum sectors in the coming days to assess the damage that Trump’s tariffs will inflict.
“The EU dimension is key on many aspects,” Cuerpo said in an interview.
“In case we finally impose tariffs on U.S. products, the revenue will actually go mostly to the EU budget as well. So there would be room to actually provide for this necessary help for our firms and industries — not only in terms of somehow minimizing the impact, but also in terms of helping them looking at other markets to helping them diversify and find new niches as well.”
EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said that ministers will discuss “how to … prevent eventual trade diversion and how to make sure that [the European trading system] will provide adequate support and services for the European companies in this very difficult situation.”
While he called over the weekend not to escalate tensions with the United States, the Spanish minister didn’t rule out going after trade in services, including by hitting Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
He added that the bloc should make use of all the tools it has at its disposal, including the Anti-Coercion Instrument — which is one of the EU’s most powerful trade tools and allows the bloc to take far-reaching measures such as restricting intellectual property rights.
“The first priority when actually engaging in this discussion should be to protect or to minimize the harm to our own industries, to our own products, in everything, in every measure that we take that we decide,” he said.
“That would mean that we need to explore the use of all the instruments that are at our disposal. That’s for sure. We should not rule out anything.”
“The Anti-Coercion Instrument is there for us to use it in case we find it necessary. But again, the message that the EU should just take today is a positive one,” Cuerpo added.
Koen Verhelst contributed to this report.
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