VILNIUS – There are usually no winners in trade wars, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda says, as the US mulls hitting the European Union with tariffs.
"I don't know of any trade wars in history where somebody wins and somebody loses, usually both sides lose," Nauseda told Lithuania's public broadcaster LRT as he attends an informal meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Monday.
"The US-EU cooperation is probably the biggest, I mean both in terms of foreign trade turnover and investments, and this would certainly have consequences because the EU would have to retaliate, and this would cause losses on both sides," he said, adding that the possible disagreement between the US and the EU on tariffs could still be turned into a "positive discussion".
"If we are talking about the competitiveness of the automotive industry suffering, maybe we can talk about free trade agreements on a sectoral basis. (...) If we are talking about us being too dependent on Russian energy resources, why can't we buy more liquefied natural gas from the US?" the Lithuanian president said.
"Today, we are very much focused on that defensive reaction of what to do, instead of proposing paths that President Trump would find interesting, attractive and worth considering," he said, noting that one part of that "positive agenda" is for Europe to buy more military equipment from Washington.
"And when it comes to China, we can be a partner, not a competitor, to the US, helping it to compete with China's growing economic power," Nauseda said.
He hopes that economic competition would not become a problem within NATO formats.
"I do hope that this economic debate will not poison our joint decisions, which are extremely important for Lithuania's vital interests," the president said.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order over the weekend, imposing high tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, which will take effect on Tuesday.
Trump also said that he would "absolutely" impose tariffs on the EU in the future.
The EU on Sunday criticized Trump's decision to impose import tariffs on the US' main trading partners, saying that it would be detrimental to all sides.
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