The European Commission has begun to assess the consequences of the presidential election in the United States, special attention is paid to the scenario in which Donald Trump will win. This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to sources.
The politician’s style is becoming more and more aggressive, European countries should prepare, explained a senior official familiar with the preparations. Brussels is thinking over the reaction to any trade restrictions the White House may adopt.
According to the agency, Trump is mulling imposing new restrictions on trade with the EU if he returns to the White House. We are talking about introducing a minimum tariff of 10 per cent and countermeasures against European taxes on digital services.
During his first term as president, Trump raised duties on imports of steel and aluminium products from the EU – at 25% and 10% respectively – to protect US industry. The EU imposed retaliatory tariff measures on imports of various goods from the US. Shortly after Joe Biden became president, these customs tariffs were partially cancelled.
The EU leadership believes that even after the cancellation of part of the tariffs, the situation remains unfair: European exporters spend $ 350 billion annually on duties. Despite this, EU countries are reluctant to reintroduce retaliatory tariffs, fearing that this will add to Trump’s electoral votes.
Biden’s actions are more peaceful, co-operation to support Ukraine has helped restore trans-Atlantic relations, but European officials still believe that the trade policy of the current US president still has much in common with Trump’s “America First” motto, Bloomberg points out. For example, EU leaders were appalled by Biden’s more than $390 billion green technology subsidy programme, which gave companies an incentive to divert investment from Europe to the US.
In addition, problems with congressional approval of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other foreign partners raises concerns among European countries about how reliable the U.S. is, regardless of who is president, the New York Times found out.
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