The EU fears that the US will jeopardize their trade agreements with the rest of the world

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Until now, the European Union had not had trade problems with the rest of the world, but the current situation is different. The conflict nearest is in the Uk as the ‘brexit’ union of the Twenty-eight will disintegrate and the output that is arranged for the 31st of October will depend on the continuity of the United Kingdom in the trade agreements of the EU with the different countries.

But this is not the biggest problem facing the european economy. Trump is breaking the rules of the game business, and, after the barriers imposed on China, there is no doubt that you could make effective their threat on the vehicles of high-end europeans, which would mainly affect Germany, until now known as the ‘locomotive european’ and whose fall would mean the contraction of the rest of eurozone countries, also Spain. Our country also would be very touched, because the auxiliary industry of car component that supplies to Germany is very powerful in regions such as Valladolid, Valencia, Catalonia and Madrid.

The plan to protect the industry, american auto –which although was intended to apply to the 18 may was postponed six months until November– has as its point of look at Europe and Japan. Brussels has calculated that a tariff of 25% would add € 10,000 to the price of the european cars in the united STATES. Germany would be the european country most severely affected because a large part of the turnover of manufacturers is in the united STATES. Mercedes sold there 25% of its total production, Volkswagen 16%, and BMW at 16%.

Faced with this situation, Europe has begun to take measures to counteract the bad export figures. This same Wednesday, the European Commission is determined to maintain at least three years of tariffs of 25% on imports of 26 varieties of steel to cope with the damage caused to the european industry.

Japan, buyer of tuna

despite the confrontation with the U.S., there are a lot of world beyond. The EU has free trade agreements with countries as important as Canada, Mexico, China or Vietnam. One of the most recently have been signed has been with Japan, last February 1, after many negotiations, as he says in this newspaper Robert Tornabell, professor of Economics and Finance at ESADE. This agreement frees tariffs for value of 1,000 million euros, which enables Europe to sell their cheaper products to the asian power.

Spain is one of the major beneficiaries, since Japan buy our country’s products as valued as the wines with designation of origin, cava Catalan, hams from extremadura and, above all, tuna from the coasts of cadiz, one of the foods most valued in japanese culture. “They sell us electronics, cameras and professional robots, we are years ahead in that,” said Tornabell, so that it is “very important to the agreement to guarantee this type of product at a better price”.

For Spanish food products is also of special relevance to the trade agreement of the EU with Morocco, for which you pay the fishing rights on the coast of the country, which are andalusian fishing. “Also Catalan companies are going there for the cheaper labor and the lack of tariffs”, says the professor of ESADE.

Other agreements relevant for Europe, but endangered by the threats of Trump, is with Canada. It affects mainly industrial exports, so Germany is the main benefited: “And if they benefit, we all win,” says the expert. The most recent has been that the EU signed with Mercosur on the 29th of June after 20 years of negotiations. The pact with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay will give access to european companies to a market of 260 million consumers.

The agreement, which will eliminate about 4,000 billion in tariffs, will be of most benefit to the industry of automotive, machinery and pharmaceutical industries. Last year the EU made sales to the Mercosur by value 45,000 million. Food exports to Mercosur represents only a 5%, but the Spanish agricultural sector has shown its concern about whether the conditions for imports, whose volume is much greater, they would hurt sales.