Spain argues NATO funding ought to deal with actual threats, not arbitrary targets, amidst Trump’s tariff retaliation plans.
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The European Fee and Spain’s authorities have dismissed US President Donald Trump’s latest threat to impose increased tariffs on Madrid over its refusal to fulfill his proposed NATO goal for defence spending.
Trump stated on Tuesday that he was “very sad” with Spain for being the one NATO member to reject the brand new spending goal of 5 percent of economic output, including that he was contemplating punishing the Mediterranean nation.
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“I used to be pondering of giving them commerce punishment by means of tariffs due to what they did, and I feel I could do this,” Trump added. He had beforehand prompt making Spain “pay twice as a lot” in commerce talks.
Commerce coverage falls beneath the remit of Brussels, and the European Fee would “reply appropriately, as we at all times do, to any measures taken in opposition to a number of of our member states”, fee spokesperson Olof Gill stated in a press briefing on Wednesday.
The commerce deal between the European Union and the USA signed in July was the best platform to handle any points, Gill added.
“The defence spending debate is just not about growing spending for the sake of accelerating it, however about responding to actual threats,” Spain’s Economic system and Commerce Ministry stated in an announcement.
“We’re doing our half to develop the required capabilities and contribute to the collective defence of our allies.”
Spain has greater than doubled nominal defence spending from 0.98 p.c of gross home product in 2017 to 2 p.c this yr, equal to about 32.7bn euros ($38bn).
Defence Minister Margarita Robles stated allies weren’t discussing the 5 p.c goal for 2035 in Wednesday’s assembly as a result of they had been prioritising the current state of affairs in Ukraine, however wouldn’t fully rule out a shift in Spain’s place.
Focused tariffs by the US in opposition to particular person EU member states are uncommon, however there are precedents, stated Ignacio Garcia Bercero, a senior fellow on the Brussels-based financial suppose tank Bruegel.
In 1999, the US hit the EU with 100% punitive tariffs on merchandise akin to chocolate, pork, onions and truffles in retaliation for an EU import ban on hormone-treated beef. However these tariffs excluded Britain, which on the time was nonetheless a member of the commerce bloc.
The US might impose anti-dumping penalties on European merchandise which are principally produced in Spain, stated Juan Carlos Martinez Lazaro, professor at Madrid’s IE enterprise college.
In 2018, Washington imposed a mixture of duties of greater than 30 p.c on Spanish black desk olives on the request of Californian olive growers. Spain’s share of the US market plummeted from 49 p.c in 2017 to 19 p.c in 2024.
Another choice can be shifting the naval and air bases the US has in southern Spain to Morocco – an concept floated by former Trump official Robert Greenway – which might injury the native economies by means of the lack of 1000’s of oblique jobs.
