Spain will be protected against any attempt by US President Donald Trump to impose punitive tariffs on the country in retaliation for its refusal to meet NATO's 5% target, the European Commission said on Wednesday, as the dispute over defence spending further interweaves with lingering trade tensions.
All EU countries, including Spain, are bound by a common commercial policy, which means their products face the same tariffs when they are sold abroad. Technically speaking, it would be possible for the US to single out Spanish-made goods at customs and place them under a duty higher than the 15% rate currently in place. But for Brussels, which jealously guards its exclusive competence on trade, such discrimination would be anathema.
Gill did not specify which action Brussels could undertake in response to the "hypothetical" scenario. Instead, he called for dialogue to resolve any disagreement.
The Commission's assurance came a day after Trump excoriated Spain's sluggish defence spending and raised the prospect of retribution through tariffs, an instrument that the Republican has deployed at large to advance his foreign policy goals.
In the lead-up to the gathering, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte calling the 5% figure "unreasonable" and "counterproductive" and asking for a tailor-made exemption for his country.
Sánchez argued that Spain, which only recently reached the previous 2% goal, could only attain the 5% mark by making painful cuts to social spending, a step that his progressive coalition government was not willing to tolerate.
The language of the final NATO declaration was adjusted to allow greater flexibility in reaching the 5% target, effectively sparing Spain from the pledge.
Since then, Trump has repeatedly bemoaned and denounced the Spanish exemption, suggesting, at one point, the nation be "thrown out"from the Atlantic alliance.
If Trump made good on his commercial threat, which is unclear at this stage, it would represent a frontal assault on the terms of the EU-US trade deal concluded in July.
Posted by John3262005