EU Commissioner: Europe must be positioned in the context of the paradigm shift in the global trading system

Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of trade ministers, Maros Sefcovic said the focus of the ministers’ meeting should be on how the European Union should prepare its next steps in its trade relations with the United States.

Ministers should discuss how the EU should prepare its trading systems for potential trade diversions and ensure that it provides support to European companies in the “current very difficult situation”, he said.

There is also a need to discuss how the EU can speed up trade negotiations with the rest of the world to ensure that 87% of trade continues to operate within the rules-based system, respecting the World Trade Organization (WTO), “and all the rules that we have been following for many, many decades”, the Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security added upon his arrival.

Michal Baranowski, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Poland, which holds the six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, said in his arrival speech on behalf of the Council presidency that never before in the history of the global economy have tariffs been imposed like those imposed in recent weeks.