“Europe has a lot of powerful weapons to respond to the tariff policy imposed by Donald Trump.” This was emphatically emphasized by New Democracy MEP Dimitris Tsiodras, speaking today on SKAI’s TV show. And he explained that these weapons are financially, as Europe is a market of 450 million with very high purchasing power, but also legally: there are tools that can even involve the participation of US companies in tenders for supplies of goods and services in the Union’s Member.
Tsiodras said the European Union was expecting Trump measures and has prepared a series of response. And he insisted that the essence is in the choice: “Will we get into a trade war without end or take back measures, but keeping the door of negotiation open?” He noted that President Trump calculates only the products in the US trade deficit with the EU, and if the services are included, this is only 50 billion – therefore, there are room for negotiation and are very important.
Especially for Greece, he stressed that products such as edible olives and feta can be excluded from tariffs, just as 2019 had happened – as they are not produced in the US. Responding to the issue of the Tempe tragedy, Mr Tsiodras stressed that with the latest developments “the conspiracy theories of the illegal burden and the government supposedly collapsed to disguise its traces”. He pointed out the heavy responsibilities of the opposition, which “adopted these theories, which were initially distributed by the extreme forces, and thus became a dominant view and almost truth about Greek society.”