Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. So Donald Trump has
Speaker 1: ordered his administration to consider imposing reciprocal terror some numerous
Speaker 1: trading partners, including of course the European Union. Val the
Speaker 1: Sanmbrowski's European Commissioner for the Economy and Productivity joins US now. Commissioners,
Speaker 1: thanks so much as always for giving us a little
Speaker 1: bit of your busy schedule.
Speaker 2: When you look.
Speaker 1: At what Donald Trump has announced so far in terms
Speaker 1: of terrorists and steel and aluminium, the European Union always said, look,
Speaker 1: we can fight back.
Speaker 2: What would that look like?
Speaker 3: Well, indeed, we are following closely the announcements of Trump
Speaker 3: administration as regards tariffs, and generally speaking, we are obviously disappointed.
Speaker 3: We do not see the basis for those tariffs, neither
Speaker 3: economically nor legally. The EUUs is having the largest trade
Speaker 3: and investment relationship in the world. We have deeply interconnected
Speaker 3: value changed, so all this is going to be quite
Speaker 3: disruptive economically. So we are an engagement is the US
Speaker 3: administration also to find more precisely the plans, to find
Speaker 3: the constructive ways forward. But if necessary, we are ready
Speaker 3: to defend our economic interests and to respond in for
Speaker 3: firm and proportionate waves.
Speaker 1: So first of all, have you run the numbers of
Speaker 1: what that looks like if there were the first wave
Speaker 1: of tariffs, and if there's some reciprocal and backwards and forwards,
Speaker 1: what that does to GDP or just in terms of
Speaker 1: how much that would cost.
Speaker 3: Well, of course it will depends on exact policies which
Speaker 3: are going to be enacted. In a sense, also on
Speaker 3: the US sides, there are still some considerations how these
Speaker 3: reciprocal tariffs are going to be applied. But the EU
Speaker 3: is already having actually one of the largest tariffs in
Speaker 3: the world, one of the lowest tariffs in the world,
Speaker 3: sorry for that, So we do not see the economic
Speaker 3: reasoning for this as well. But obviously all we are
Speaker 3: looking so what our options are And if you remember
Speaker 3: also from the first Trump administration when it imposed the
Speaker 3: tariffs on steel and aluminium, we responded with our tariffs
Speaker 3: in a proportionate way.
Speaker 1: Do you think it would be similar to what happened
Speaker 1: last time or are there new regions of the economy
Speaker 1: that would be worse affected.
Speaker 2: Well, we.
Speaker 3: See that there has been already announcement on steel and aluminium,
Speaker 3: and what is being discussed now with so called recipprosal tariffs.
Speaker 3: It goes beyond it, so it can be broader than
Speaker 3: last time.
Speaker 1: There's also been very little progress on defense spending from
Speaker 1: the EU. What are you expecting jd Events in his
Speaker 1: big speech today to announce and how can Europe step up?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's very clear also from recent announcements
Speaker 3: from US administrations that EU has to step up its
Speaker 3: defense effort, defense spending, strengthening our own military industry, strengthening
Speaker 3: support for Ukraine because obviously it's key that we achieve
Speaker 3: a piece in Europe and peace in Ukraine that is
Speaker 3: fair and lasting, and that it's not done behind Ukraine's back,
Speaker 3: but with Ukraine at a table. But it's clear that
Speaker 3: we will have to do more as Europeans, and actually
Speaker 3: European Commission is preparing for the next month as a
Speaker 3: white paper on the future of European Defense, where will
Speaker 3: be elaborating exactly on those issues.
Speaker 2: Joined that is this a possibility?
Speaker 3: Well, I will not go now in detail, but it's
Speaker 3: clear that defense spending will need to increase substantially, both
Speaker 3: at national and at EU level.
Speaker 1: Commissioner. Some have floated the idea that the frozen assets.
Speaker 1: The frozen Russian assets could then be spent by Ukraine
Speaker 1: to buy US weapons.
Speaker 2: Is that a good idea?
Speaker 3: Well, we know that right now as a frozen Russian
Speaker 3: assets or immobilized Russian assets are being used, the proceeds
Speaker 3: from those assets are being used for extraordinary Revenue Acceleration
Speaker 3: loan which is provided by G seven to Ukraine in
Speaker 3: a sense to repay that loan. So if there are
Speaker 3: new initiatives being discussed, and obviously we're looking at all
Speaker 3: the possibilities and all the implications because eventually it is
Speaker 3: important that Russia, as an aggressor is paying for the
Speaker 3: damage which is creating in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: But it would it be possible that one day this
Speaker 1: money would be used to buy US weapons to.
Speaker 2: Get us on side.
Speaker 3: Well, that certainly all will require more discussions and engagements
Speaker 3: also with US administrations. But as I said, we are
Speaker 3: assessing different possible options how to move forward. But it's
Speaker 3: worth keeping in mind that right now those assets are
Speaker 3: used as a revenue source for repoyment repayment of this
Speaker 3: external revenues acceleration loan which is being provided for Ukraine.
Speaker 3: So in a sense Russia is already paying in this
Speaker 3: way for a damage it's creating commission.
Speaker 1: Just a very quick final question on regulation. Do you
Speaker 1: think the EU will follow the US in deregulating, in
Speaker 1: regulating less but also getting rid of some of what's.
Speaker 2: In place now.
Speaker 3: Well, we have been very clear from our side that
Speaker 3: we are not in de regulation, so we will not
Speaker 3: launch some kind of regulation race here. With what we
Speaker 3: are doing. We are doing simplification without abolishing our high
Speaker 3: social and environmental standards. We set a numerical target for
Speaker 3: how much ADMINSTERI burden we want to reduce by twenty
Speaker 3: five percent in general and by thirty five percent for SEMIS.
Speaker 3: But we are not, for example, abolishing the goals of
Speaker 3: European Green Deal like carbon neutrality by twenty fifty and
Speaker 3: so on. We're rather looking how we can reach our
Speaker 3: policy goals in a more efficient and less costly manner.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Question for joining us as well.
Speaker 1: The Sanbraska's European Commisioner for the Economy and Productivity