“The agreement is good? No, it’s not good. Was there a better alternative? There wasn’t. So, is this the possible agreement? It’s the possible agreement, not being good and bringing problems,” Marques Mendes told journalists on the sidelines of a campaign event in Lisbon.
Considering that “the agreement is done” and now it’s necessary to “resolve the future,” the presidential candidate backed by the PSD made a recommendation to the government led by social democrat Luís Montenegro.
“I think it’s time for the government to sit at the table with social partners, especially companies, and together find ways to support Portuguese companies to diversify the destinations of their exports,” he suggested.
The goal, according to Marques Mendes, is for Portuguese companies “to find other countries, as alternatives, to sell their products.”
“Because it’s going to be more difficult to sell to the United States, it’s necessary to find, in Europe and outside Europe, other countries to export to, and this needs to be done in a joint effort between companies, various social partners, and also with the support and encouragement of the government,” he appealed.
When asked if the government should have acted earlier on this tariff issue, the presidential candidate first responded that “if it is done now, it’s very timely.”
“I don’t think the important thing is to know if it should have been done already or not. The important thing is that it be done. I think we need to have proactive solutions and we need to have constructive proposals. And that’s why I make this recommendation here, the government can follow it if it wants, if not, it doesn’t,” he pointed out.
In the perspective of Marques Mendes, “it is for exceptional moments that there must be exceptional responses.”
“And I think this would be an exceptional response and would be welcome if, in the coming days or weeks, the government and social partners joined, dialogued, and discussed to find other countries to sell their products to,” he reiterated.
For the social democrat, “no one sees this agreement as a good agreement, particularly for Europe, evidently.”
“Now, probably it’s a possible agreement, because the alternative was worse. What is the alternative? The alternative was to have a trade war, and that would be even worse, it would have even more negative consequences, especially for Europeans. So, things are what they are,” he said.
The trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States, reached on Sunday, sets US customs tariffs on European products at 15%.
The agreement also includes the EU’s commitment to purchasing American energy worth $750 billion (approximately €642 billion) – aiming specifically to replace Russian gas – the investment of an additional $600 billion (€514 billion) and an increase in military material purchases.
The US and EU countries exchange about €4.4 billion in goods and services daily.
