Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. So Donald Trump has ordered his administration to consider imposing reciprocal terror some numerous trading partners, including of course the European Union. Val the Sanmbrowski's European Commissioner for the Economy and Productivity joins US now. Commissioners, thanks so much as always for giving us a little bit of your busy schedule.
When you look.
At what Donald Trump has announced so far in terms of terrorists and steel and aluminium, the European Union always said, look, we can fight back.
What would that look like?
Well, indeed, we are following closely the announcements of Trump administration as regards tariffs, and generally speaking, we are obviously disappointed. We do not see the basis for those tariffs, neither economically nor legally. The EUUs is having the largest trade and investment relationship in the world. We have deeply interconnected value changed, so all this is going to be quite
disruptive economically. So we are an engagement is the US administration also to find more precisely the plans, to find the constructive ways forward. But if necessary, we are ready to defend our economic interests and to respond in for firm and proportionate waves.
So first of all, have you run the numbers of what that looks like if there were the first wave of tariffs, and if there's some reciprocal and backwards and forwards, what that does to GDP or just in terms of how much that would cost.
Well, of course it will depends on exact policies which are going to be enacted. In a sense, also on the US sides, there are still some considerations how these reciprocal tariffs are going to be applied. But the EU is already having actually one of the largest tariffs in the world, one of the lowest tariffs in the world, sorry for that, So we do not see the economic
reasoning for this as well. But obviously all we are looking so what our options are And if you remember also from the first Trump administration when it imposed the tariffs on steel and aluminium, we responded with our tariffs in a proportionate way.
Do you think it would be similar to what happened last time or are there new regions of the economy that would be worse affected.
Well, we.
See that there has been already announcement on steel and aluminium, and what is being discussed now with so called recipprosal tariffs. It goes beyond it, so it can be broader than last time.
There's also been very little progress on defense spending from the EU. What are you expecting jd Events in his big speech today to announce and how can Europe step up?
Well, I think it's very clear also from recent announcements from US administrations that EU has to step up its defense effort, defense spending, strengthening our own military industry, strengthening support for Ukraine because obviously it's key that we achieve a piece in Europe and peace in Ukraine that is fair and lasting, and that it's not done behind Ukraine's back,
but with Ukraine at a table. But it's clear that we will have to do more as Europeans, and actually European Commission is preparing for the next month as a white paper on the future of European Defense, where will be elaborating exactly on those issues.
Joined that is this a possibility?
Well, I will not go now in detail, but it's clear that defense spending will need to increase substantially, both at national and at EU level.
Commissioner. Some have floated the idea that the frozen assets. The frozen Russian assets could then be spent by Ukraine to buy US weapons.
Is that a good idea?
Well, we know that right now as a frozen Russian assets or immobilized Russian assets are being used, the proceeds from those assets are being used for extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loan which is provided by G seven to Ukraine in
a sense to repay that loan. So if there are new initiatives being discussed, and obviously we're looking at all the possibilities and all the implications because eventually it is important that Russia, as an aggressor is paying for the damage which is creating in Ukraine.
But it would it be possible that one day this money would be used to buy US weapons to.
Get us on side.
Well, that certainly all will require more discussions and engagements also with US administrations. But as I said, we are assessing different possible options how to move forward. But it's worth keeping in mind that right now those assets are used as a revenue source for repoyment repayment of this external revenues acceleration loan which is being provided for Ukraine. So in a sense Russia is already paying in this way for a damage it's creating commission.
Just a very quick final question on regulation. Do you think the EU will follow the US in deregulating, in regulating less but also getting rid of some of what's.
In place now.
Well, we have been very clear from our side that we are not in de regulation, so we will not launch some kind of regulation race here. With what we are doing. We are doing simplification without abolishing our high social and environmental standards. We set a numerical target for how much ADMINSTERI burden we want to reduce by twenty five percent in general and by thirty five percent for SEMIS.
But we are not, for example, abolishing the goals of European Green Deal like carbon neutrality by twenty fifty and so on. We're rather looking how we can reach our policy goals in a more efficient and less costly manner.
Thank you so much. Question for joining us as well.
The Sanbraska's European Commisioner for the Economy and Productivity