Europe needs to move to a “Europe first” strategy to avoid damage from a potential trade war with the United States, the Financial Times reports, citing Stephane Sejourné, Vice-President of the European Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy .
“If all the world markets close, the only market left open cannot be the European one… If the US closes to Latin America, India , China , the European market cannot become the destination for all the excess capacity in the world, otherwise we will find ourselves in a situation of short-term economic crisis,” Sejourné said.
He added that Europe must also pay attention to its own efforts to promote goods in markets around the world.
According to Financial Times, Brussels must send a “firm message to the United States to tell them that, today, we see no reason to devalue our trade discussion and our trade exchanges”, he said. “The new administration must realise that, they also have nothing to gain from having a trade war.”
Earlier, it became known that US President-elect Donald Trump may resort to negotiations with Europe and Great Britain when resolving the Ukrainian conflict , since the latter may offer Washington “something interesting.”
