6
May
2025
Watch
A unified EU response to unjustified US trade measures and global trade opportunities for the EU (debate)
Mr President! Donald Trump has managed to completely chaotic international trade relations in the first hundred days of his presidency. The consequences for the economy and the population are already foreseeable. Economic output will decline and at the same time prices will become more expensive. The mine for this will first pay the working population again and those who have little money in their pockets anyway. This policy is no coincidence. Right-wing populist Donald Trump is deliberately trying to assert the interests of his economic buddies, namely the US defense industry, US energy giants and US big tech companies. But the European Commission does not seem to have really understood this. Commissioner, we are in a global trade war and trade policy is being used as a weapon to enforce economic interests and define spheres of influence internationally. This must be countered by European policies with a clear strategy that protects the economy and jobs here in the European Union, and this can only be achieved with massive investments in our industry. This can only be achieved with the strategic independence of the European Union. Today, Commissioner, you too know that the Commission's initial 'it won't be so bad' head-in-the-sand strategy was a political denial of reality. Now you want to negotiate, to conclude a deal in the spirit of Donald Trump, and if that doesn't work, then there are supposed to be tough countermeasures. I hear a lot of offers from you, they are plentiful. Now even more US fracking gas will be purchased – instead of driving European energy independence and creating so many jobs, a new dependency on fossil fuels will be created. This is economically, socially and ecologically fundamentally wrong. But the pressure on the U.S. government is yet to be seen. Where is the introduction of the instrument against coercive measures? Where is the tough regulation of big tech companies? Where is the introduction of a European digital tax? Close your eyes and put your hands behind your back. Do you want to throw even more money and especially our private data into the throats of the richest companies and people like Elon Musk in this way? It is now time to work with partners such as Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, but also with China on a trade order that is rules-based, based on fair trade rather than unleashed free trade. And all that seems to come to mind for the European Commission are commodity agreements such as those with Rwanda, which is a major contributor to aggravating the war in the Congo, or digital cooperation agreements such as those with Singapore, which undermines our data security, or classic free trade agreements such as Mercosur, which Europeans have shown the red card to since TTIP because they are bad for social standards, the environment and agriculture. Their response to Trump is solely for the benefit of the US oligarchs and European oligarchs. We need a response that serves the majority of the population and democracy.