Tariffs: “We won’t have any winners,” says Pedro Ginjeira do Nascimento

The EU's trade surplus with the US represents less than 3% (50 billion) of the 1.7 trillion that trade in goods and services between these two blocs represents. The US President chose to focus only on trade in goods, where the US does indeed have a deficit compared to the EU. He does so because he believes he can force manufacturing back to the US. But he deliberately overlooks the huge surplus the US has compared to the EU in services, particularly digital services. Globalization has created enormous wealth around the world and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Its return will be bad for everyone. We will have no winners. Europe is the world's largest exporter and importer and must therefore ensure it reacts appropriately so as not to leave its market, its people, and its businesses exposed to unilateral decisions that will harm everyone. The single market, which is yet to be implemented, is one of Europe's greatest assets. Let us hope these tariffs serve to accelerate the creation of the single market. The US President's letter to the Commission President provides a very relevant clue – Trump reminds us that European companies can escape tariffs if they build factories in the US and that, Trump promises, approval of these licenses could happen "within weeks." This is another area that the Draghi Report highlights as one of the EU's failings – our bureaucracy makes us too slow. This is another area that President von der Leyen and the 27 member states must urgently address. Not with promises, nor with new bureaucratic packages, but with immediate decisions and actions. The EU must wake up.