Hungarian FM Szijjártó: EU govts to discuss trade issues

Governments of European Union member states will discuss issues of trade with the United States and China in Luxembourg on Monday, since the bloc’s competitiveness deteriorated significantly in recent years due to the mistaken policy of Brussels, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a Facebook post before the Foreign Affairs Council meeting.

“Brussels has put European companies in a difficult position by unnecessarily politicising economic issues,” Szijjártó said.

The minister said that after imposing tariffs on China’s electric car industry, which European car manufacturers objected to, the European Commission failed to build normal customs cooperation with the United States.

“Yet, the problem was not complicated: tariffs on the car industry, which is the backbone of the two continental economies, should have been reduced, and everyone would have been better off,” Szijjártó said.

One comment

Norbert

April 7, 2025 / 14:55 Reply

Ehhh. Mr. Trump basically declared economic war on friend and foe, alike? I believe there is no particular rationale or logic to the proposed tariffs. Take for example Madagascar.

https://mg.usembassy.gov/statement-on-reciprocal-tariff/

“Given the trade disparity between our two countries, the tariff rate was determined to be 47% for Madagascar”.

Madagascars main exports are coffee, vanilla, shellfish, sugar; cotton cloth, chromite, petroleum products

https://www.countryreports.org/country/Madagascar/imports-exports.htm

Not the biggest money spinner … “After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the GDP per capita is estimated to reach 728.28 U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029.”

https://www.statista.com/statistics/460331/gross-domestic-product-gdp-per-capita-in-madagascar/

So – what exactly are they supposed to buy from the US? Cars?

Lets see how Mr. Szijjártó behaves at this EU wide meeting, today. Or nip out and buy a Tesla, show love? No wait times, apparently.