Donald Trump clarified his fury with Spain for not wanting to fulfill the investment goal of 5% of GDP in defense, threatening to “earn a Spain” with a double tariff in a commercial agreement that negotiating with the EU, and assured that he would sit with Pedro Sanchez. But here the President of Spain has a letter under their sleeve: EU agreements are prohibited by member countries to negotiate on individual commercial agreements. Sanchez can hide in Brussels to avoid punishment, moving political tension to the European Commission.
Trump’s answer is not very amazing. The American president has been very angry for many years, because most allies do not “pay” NATO as much as the United States invested in defense. The fact that Sanchez clearly refused to promise that he would invest 5% (the figure is much higher than this country -member spends today, and that it is unlikely to reach the United States, taking into account the fact that its deficit is already running away), pierced the bones. And Trump promised to answer with his favorite letter: tariffs.
“What Spain has done is terrible. The only country that wants to stay 2%. This is terrible, ”said the US President. “His economy goes very well, but it can fly through the air if something happens to it. And I tell you what we are going to do. We are negotiating with them, and we are going to make them double. I say this seriously. They want a free deal, but they will have to pay us with trade. I am going to agree on this personally, ”he said at a press conference after the NATO summit.
The problem is that Spain, strictly speaking, does not negotiate a commercial agreement with the United States, and that Sanchez is officially forbidden to go to the United States to negotiations. The European Union Treaty, in its article 28, prohibits countries with individual tariff tariffs with third countries. Theoretically, this article is intended to prevent negotiations on the largest and attractive countries to agree on preferential tariffs, but also works back: the external country cannot agree on a large tariff for “punish” the member of others. The explanation would be simple: since there is a free circulation of goods, it would not be especially difficult to transfer Spanish products to neighboring countries, which will make them look like Portuguese or French in order to avoid this Spanish special tariff.
The Minister of Economics himself, Carlos Corps, reacted to Trump’s threats this afternoon, recalling that “negotiations are taking place within the framework of the European Commission, which is responsible for negotiations with all member states, not only for Spain.”
In addition, politically, EU member countries could not admit that the third party turned to one of them, because it would open the door to fragment a single market: If Trump can punish Spain for this question, why can I also introduce emergency tariffs for Ireland for its export of medicine in the United States or put a bigger guy in Germany than in Estonia? And in the next negotiations with the third that prevents them from proposing pre -emptive types of more attractive countries, such as Germany or Italy against Malta or Croatia?
The problem in this case is that The political cost of Spanish protection will correspond to BrusselsThis will be forced to inform Trump, he cannot put higher tariffs for Spain than other countries. A new obstacle to very intense negotiations and one who has only two weeks left, at least if Trump does not decide to expand the famous “Tariffs for a letter” that will again enter into force on July 9, if there are no last turns.
Namely, this obligation has become one of the EU key letters in negotiations, as the French president Emmanuel Macron suggested: “This is the European obligation, obviously, imposes a commercial world. We cannot between the allies: “We are going to spend more” and will join NATO in a commercial war. This is aberration“And he insisted that Trump should” omit all existing tariffs and are backed up. “
Months of commercial confrontation
Last month, Trump threatened to put a 50% tariff in the EU, arguing that twenty -seven were created “with the main purpose of using the United States in trade” and criticizing Brussels for the fact that he had “powerful commercial barriers”, such as VAT, which rejects, believing that “subsidies for export is”, although not so that this is not so, not so.
Another key is Trump’s perseverance that the tariffs suggest that the country (in this case, Spain) pays the money that imposes them (in this case, USA). The Republican came to an approval at the press conference that “the countries will pay tariffs, or exporters will be suitable. Although in some cases, importers will be. ” Nevertheless, the tax fund has compiled a long list of research, which show that the tariffs, in fact, will be paid by US citizens, and the increase in prices and falls on the margin of imported firms.
The “double tariff” for Spain will damage the Spanish exporters, making their sales in the United States more expensive, and, in fact, the Bank of Spain warned that 30% of the country’s signatures had already had some influence on a “fixed rate” in 10%, which Trump currently imposes on the whole world. But the most direct costs will be American consumers. Spain, like a country, will not “pay” Washington for them.
