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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: EU Commissioner of the Economy Valdie Sambrowski's joins us now

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Speaker 2: from Brussels. Commissioner, I'm so glad that you're here with us.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: I want to start there.

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Speaker 2: How much are the trade negotiations with the United States

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Speaker 2: the backdrop pushing a lot of European Union nations together

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Speaker 2: and bringing into the fold. This morning Bulgaria, which was

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Speaker 2: greenlighted to come join the euro good afternoon.

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Speaker 3: Indeed, well, I would say, all in all, we currently

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Speaker 3: are living in more turbulent times and more conflictual geopolitical situation,

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Speaker 3: and that obviously adds to the sense of urgency for

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Speaker 3: European Union to act and to act in a united

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Speaker 3: and coordinated a way. So that's why we have made

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Speaker 3: strengthening Europe's competitiveness and strengthening Europe's defense and security as

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Speaker 3: a top priorities for the European Union right now as

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Speaker 3: regards Bulgaria's euro Area accession, Indeed, today European Commission has

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Speaker 3: published a convergence report concluding that Bulgaria is meeting all

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Speaker 3: the master criteria to join the euro Area as of

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Speaker 3: January first, next year. It's not the final step in

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Speaker 3: a procedure. It's still for e member states to follow

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Speaker 3: up on this convergence report and actually to invite Bulgaria

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Speaker 3: to join euro Area. We expect this procedure to be

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Speaker 3: concluded by mid July, but clearly it shows that euro

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Speaker 3: remains open and attractive. Currency Commissioner.

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Speaker 2: One big question has been just how much fiscal stimulus

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Speaker 2: is going to get injected into the European region. There

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Speaker 2: was this deal that people have been talking about to

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Speaker 2: support the economy. How much has the economy been affected

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Speaker 2: by the ongoing trade negotiations or do you really see

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Speaker 2: robust resilience as the European Union looks to other trade partners.

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Speaker 3: Well, clearly we do see a negative economic impact from

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Speaker 3: the tariffs already imposed on the EU by US and

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Speaker 3: also on uncertainty tariffs are creating as we know that

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Speaker 3: we are also not yet at the end of the negotiations.

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Speaker 3: So correspondingly, we saw it as one of the factors

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Speaker 3: slowing down European Union economic growth this year, and correspondingly

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Speaker 3: we expect only EU economy to grow by one point

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Speaker 3: one percent this year. So from European Union side, we

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Speaker 3: are willing to find a mutually acceptable solution with United

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Speaker 3: States as regards to tariffs, also to put an end

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Speaker 3: to this certainty and to avoid further also global economic fragmentation.

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Speaker 1: If you guys cannot reach an agreement by this at

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Speaker 1: least the deadline that the US is put on you

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Speaker 1: for next month, have you prepared a package of vitaliatory

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Speaker 1: tariffs against the US.

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Speaker 3: Well, as you know already when the steel and aluminium

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Speaker 3: tariffs were introduced by the Trumpet administration against the EU,

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Speaker 3: we already prepared the first set of countermeasures, contact tariffs,

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Speaker 3: but we also suspended these contact tariffs to give negotiations

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Speaker 3: a chance. But we had reiterated that if we are

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Speaker 3: not able to find mutually acceptable solution, we are ready

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Speaker 3: also to put those contract tariffs in a place as

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Speaker 3: regards the first package, which was our response to steel

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Speaker 3: and aluminium tariffs, but also roader package, which is a

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Speaker 3: response to already further tariff which had been imposed on

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Speaker 3: the EU. But right now we are still negotiating, actually

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Speaker 3: exactly today our Trade Commissioner Marascheko, which is in negotiations

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Speaker 3: with US trade representatives Degreer, and they are making progress commistioner.

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Speaker 2: At the same time, China has announced in agreement to

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Speaker 2: buy Airbus planes, potentially three hundred of them, and I

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Speaker 2: wonder how much While trade negotiations are going on with

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Speaker 2: the US, European Union is moving forward with some sort

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Speaker 2: of discussion with China about tightening ties there well.

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Speaker 3: As regards China, it's worst noting that China is second

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Speaker 3: largest EU trading partner after the US, So obviously for

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Speaker 3: US it's very important to how our transatlantic relations and

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Speaker 3: including trade and investment relations on track. But obviously also

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Speaker 3: relations with China are important that it's our second largest

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Speaker 3: trading partner. Obviously in relations with China, we have also

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Speaker 3: concerns regarding the imbalances in our economic relations regarding the

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Speaker 3: China's non market policies and practices. So there are also

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Speaker 3: issues which needs to be addressed going forward.

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Speaker 2: What do you think is going to be the key

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Speaker 2: issue that you would like to see some breakthroughs made

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Speaker 2: when it comes to US and European trade.

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Speaker 3: Well, I would say it's quite Obviously the key issue

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Speaker 3: right now is to find a solution on our ongoing

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Speaker 3: discussions as regards tariffs, and we do not have so

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Speaker 3: much time left till July, so it's importantly to resolve

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Speaker 3: this issue also then to put our relations on overall

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Speaker 3: more positive footing.

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Speaker 2: Economy Commissioner of all these Tempravskis, thank you so much

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Speaker 2: for being with us