US President Donald Trump shook the global trading system by announcing unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. JEF Finland considers Trump’s actions worrying. The situation can only be answered with the EU’s common trade policy.
JEF Finland believes that the import tariffs imposed by the United States are extremely worrying, and have pushed the world to the brink of a trade war.
”The United States’ trading partners are planning countermeasures, and the rhetoric is escalating. The tariffs will significantly harm EU and Finnish trade, both directly and indirectly”, says JEF Finland’s President Tuomas Tikkanen.
In justifying the tariffs, the United States has invoked national security.
”This is absurd, since the EU countries are close allies of the US. Yet Trump’s public pressure has largely been directed at the EU, and it can be interpreted that the United States is trying to force its trading partners into concessions it isn’t prepared to make itself.”
JEF Finland believes that Trump’s actions demonstrate the importance of the EU’s common trade policy. Together, the EU’s member states are in a considerably stronger position to respond to pressure from the Trump administration than they would be separately.
”The EU has the capacity to respond forcefully, since it is the largest market area in the world. The EU also has strong competence and a wide range of tools in trade policy, partly designed for exactly this kind of situation”, Tikkanen says.
JEF Finland assesses that the EU’s position is further strengthened by its recent trade policy successes. In recent years, the EU has succeeded in concluding a free trade agreement with Canada, in addition to which negotiations with Japan have been concluded and negotiations with Mexico are progressing.
According to JEF Finland, this escalated situation could, in the best case, be resolved the way it was in 2002. At that time, President George W. Bush’s administration raised tariffs on all steel imports, likewise citing national security.
”The United States ultimately abandoned the tariffs the following year, due to countermeasures from the EU and other trading partners, as well as strong opposition from the WTO”, Tikkanen recalls.
Further information:
Tuomas Tikkanen
President
[email protected]
+358 40 523 5768
Mikko Kymäläinen
Secretary General
[email protected]
+358 40 911 2049