“The EU should never give up on the US market, and Portugal even less so”, argues the Minister of Agriculture

The Portuguese government believes in an agreement with the United States that avoids the application of 30% tariffs on European exports, and calls for “patience” in the negotiations. This position was conveyed this Monday by the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, who believes that Portugal must not let the Portuguese-American trade relationship fall apart.

“The European Union has to be united, firm and, at the same time, have patience in a negotiation that isn’t over yet. We’re still in July and we shouldn’t rush into it”, said Minister José Manuel Fernandes, speaking to journalists at the entrance to a meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels.

Even so, he believes that the European Union “must put everything in terms of scenarios to be prepared and must respond to what are falsehoods”, alluding to the US President’s argument about the trade deficit. “We have a surplus in trade in goods with the US, but we have a deficit of more than 100 billion euros in trade in services”, said José Manuel Fernandes.

The Agriculture Minister also believes that, “in the end”, the US tariffs of 30% will not apply. “Two weeks is still a long time to negotiate”, he emphasised.

“The European Union should never give up on the US market and Portugal much less so”, he said, pointing out that the country “has a surplus in agroforestry and fisheries and the sea and where wine, olive oil and cork account for 75% of our exports”.

On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of 30% tariffs on all European Union products, regardless of all sectoral tariffs.

A day later, the president of the European Commission announced that Brussels would suspend retaliatory measures against the US tariffs, which were scheduled to come into force on Monday, with the aim of continuing negotiations with the US until 1 August.