The European Union shares in the United States. “Contrary to what we could have feared,” Europeans are united in their negotiations against Washington to find an agreement on customs surcharge, despite their “different” national interests, said France’s Minister of Foreign Trade on Monday on Monday.
This common approach “will be used for the future”, in particular to conclude “trade agreements with the rest of the world,” said RTL minister.
“We can consider that a low increase in customs tasks can be accepted if, in certain European export sectors, and in particular French, I think of aeronautics, our wines and spirits, our cosmetics, (customs duties) can be reduced,” he explained to the minister from the point of view of the tricolor.
“This is what is still being discussed” in the “last hours of discussion” with the United States, according to him, while the US administration plans to apply great customs tasks as of August 1.
But “you will never have seen during these six months, contrary to what one could have feared at the beginning of the year, dissonant votes” in the European Union, said the French minister.
An asset to sign other agreements
“They are not just the United States in life. We will also make commercial agreements with India, with Malaysia, with the Philippines, with Indonesia, with Australia,” the minister continued.
“And perhaps with South America if we manage, in fact, the agreement” of Mercosur, pressed by the EU but is not adequate as the French who deplore the absence of “protection” in their bovine sector, said Laurent Saint-Martin.
“I returned from Latin America. I had the guarantee of the Argentine and Brazilian side that they agreed to discuss the principle of an additional protocol with the European Commission,” added the French minister, for whom “the ball is in the camp” of the European Executive.
Source: BFM TV
