“Today, the Prime Minister can take advantage of the state of the nation debate to explain what is being done about this matter [tariffs]. What we have heard are various concerns from many entrepreneurs in this sector,” stated José Luís Carneiro to journalists after a meeting with the president of the Portuguese Business Confederation (CIP), Armindo Monteiro, in Lisbon.
In the PS leader’s perspective, “it is very important that the Government, just as it happened with Brexit, has plans prepared,” both in Portugal and in the European dialogue, “to protect sectors that are particularly at risk,” such as textiles, clothing, footwear, agri-food, and health.
The objective, according to Carneiro, would be “to mitigate these effects” of tariffs and “also support these companies.”
“It is very relevant that the Government has a team working in this area, just as we did in the past to safeguard the impacts of Brexit on Portuguese companies,” he compared.
According to the PS leader, these tariffs generate “brutal impacts” that will affect inflation, employment, economic growth forecasts, and state revenues.
“I would say that, at the very least, it is expected that the Government has a diversified team that monitors various sectors of activity to assess impacts and, based on these impacts, adopt policy measures to mitigate the effects,” he argued.
When asked whether he believes this work is not being done, José Luís Carneiro mentioned, “so far no one has information about any measures or initiatives that the Government is currently undertaking.”
“But I also admit it could be due to the Government’s own discretion. The Prime Minister could explain this in the Assembly of the Republic, today that we have the state of the nation debate,” he challenged.
The European Commission proposed on Monday to the countries of the European Union (EU) a list of imported goods from the United States, totaling 72 billion euros, to tax in case the U.S. administration imposes reciprocal tariffs of 30%.
On Saturday, American President Donald Trump announced that he will impose 30% tariffs on EU products starting August 1st, in a letter addressed to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Reacting to this announcement, the leader of the EU executive affirmed that Brussels remains willing to negotiate with the U.S. to reach an agreement before August 1st.
Donald Trump justified the decision with the EU’s trade surplus with the United States, which reached 50 billion euros in 2024.
