Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck warned of overhanged reactions at an EU meeting with the USA, but at the same time spoken out for the preparation of extensive countermeasures.
“We (…) have no time pressure, because the Americans: inside has the pressure and are in a position of weakness,” said the Greens politician. The statements of Donald Trump’s consultant and familiar Elon Musk are evidence. The latter had said on the weekend, he hoped that one moves towards a zero-inch situation with a free trade zone between Europe and North America.
It is now important that Europe cannot be split, emphasized Habeck. So individual countries should not try to negotiate their own advantages, then that will go wrong. “The strength comes out of the common ground,” said the executive Minister of Economic Affairs.
Greens politician sees vulnerability
In the opinion of Habeck, the EU should not only prepare counter -to imports from the United States, but also consider to make exports more expensive to which the United States rely on. He cited pharmaceutical products as an example and added: “We see that they are vulnerable.” He also campaigned to consider the use of the EU instrument against economic constraints. This could be burdened by digital services from US tech companies.
At the same time, Habeck emphasized that an escalation should be prevented as far as possible. “In my view, it is about avoiding us getting into an customs war, customs competition,” he said. This would only harm the economies and people.