Pierre moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Union, said on the 22nd that the U.S. government’s trade sanctions against the EU were "inappropriate" and that Europe and the United States, caught in a trade dispute, should have acted "like allies".
During the G20 finance ministers’ meeting and central bank governors’ meeting in Buenos Aires, Moscovici said in an interview with the media that the United States regards the EU and Russia as trade "rivals", but the EU is "willing to build bridges".
"I stressed many times at the meeting that the EU is definitely not the initiator of major trade imbalances." Moskovic said that the international situation is changing at the time of the meeting. "The G20 plays an important role in the multilateral system", and the multilateral system is under great pressure at present. At the same time, trade disputes are intensifying, which may further escalate. "All these bring uncertainty to the economic prospects".
In Moscovici’s view, the current protectionist policies have limited impact at present, but there is still the possibility of escalation, so everyone should "keep a cool head".
"Further escalation of trade conflicts will have a negative impact on the well-being of relevant countries, including the United States." Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying that trade protectionism will not benefit anyone, "there are no winners, only victims".
The United States has imposed high tariffs on steel and aluminum products from the European Union, Canada and Mexico since June 1, and is considering imposing tariffs on automobiles and their spare parts from these three countries. The US government also imposed tariff sanctions on other countries.
The International Monetary Fund predicts that in the worst case, if all tariff threats are implemented and retaliatory measures are triggered, the global GDP will be reduced by half a percentage point in 2020, about 430 billion US dollars. (Wang Yijun) [Xinhua News Agency]