Spain calls for negotiations with Trump over tariff threat

Spain continues to call for talks with the Trump administration in the face of the threat of imposing 50% tariffs on European products starting in June. First Vice President and Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero called yesterday for "negotiation to be given a chance."

The second-in-command of the Executive also called for "caution" in these talks between the European Union and the United States and expressed confidence in "reaching a negotiated solution as soon as possible that will ensure that the sectors involved are not harmed."

Teresa Ribera affirms that the EU "will not back down" in the face of "blackmail" proposed by the US.

"Tariff policy is not good for Europe, it's not good for the United States, nor for global trade," Montero reiterated, advocating that "we must avoid speculating about the positions adopted and increasing tensions" with the White House.

More forceful than Montero was the Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, who said yesterday that the European Union "will not back down" in the face of the tariff "blackmail" proposed by the US president. "Such blackmail cannot be tolerated," the former third vice president of the government stated, according to the Efe news agency in Brussels.

"We are witnessing a spectacle with very few precedents in our times: the aggressive desire of the United States Federal Administration to impose its reality, to impose its conditions, to impose its interests as if the rest of us were going to give in," Ribera said. In his opinion, what the EU should do is "stand firm," but "without escalating the conflict." He added: "Europe will not allow conditions to be imposed that are absolutely contrary to the interests of businesses and society."