“We do not want high tariffs, we want low tariffs,” said Minister Szijjártó.
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary does not support EU counter-tariffs against American products.
“What we certainly do not support is a trade war and a tariff war with the United States. We do not want high tariffs, we want low tariffs,” said Minister Szijjártó after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday.
“We expect the European Commission to negotiate, but not about imposing new tariffs, not about even higher tariffs, but about how to reduce tariffs for trade between the United States and the European Union,” he added.
Minister Szijjártó said Hungary does not support EU counter-tariffs because they would make American imported products more expensive, meaning they would cause significant price increases for people on the continent. If the list compiled by the EC were accepted, it would immediately mean a price increase of HUF 18bn in Hungary, he added.
Minister Szijjártó said that it has become clear that several member states share a similar position to Hungary.
“It would have been possible to conduct substantive negotiations with the American administration for months, to put serious proposals on the table of the American administration months ago, and to reach an agreement based on them,” said Minister Szijjártó.
The minister said the EU should have reduced import tariffs on the US auto industry from the current 10pc to 2.5pc, so everything that happened could have been avoided.
Minister Szijjártó also mentioned the future of European-Chinese trade cooperation, reiterating that the current leadership of the EC is unfit for its task, as evidenced by the tariffs imposed on the Chinese electric car industry. He called these a good example of how “an ideologically driven economic policy measure” can cause enormous damage.
