Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday he backed a European Union trade deal with the United States but “without any enthusiasm”.
US President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen struck the deal on Sunday, fixing a baseline tariff of 15 percent on EU exports to the United States.
That is lower than the blanket 30-percent tariffs Trump had threatened but significantly higher than the duties in place to date.
“I value the constructive and negotiating attitude of the president of the European Commission. In any case, I support this trade agreement, but I do so without any enthusiasm,” Sánchez told a news conference.
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The government has said it expects Trump’s tariffs to have limited effect on Spain’s economy, one of the developed world’s most dynamic, given its smaller exposure to the US market.
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But it has warned that certain sectors like olive oil and wine are at higher risk as more of such exports head to the United States.
READ MORE: Machinery and olive oil – The economic impact of Trump’s tariffs on Spain
The Spanish Federation of Food and Beverage Industries, which represents more than 18,000 exporting companies, said the tariff “puts an end to the balance of free trade”.
“An agreement is better than an open trade war, but we do not accept that exports of our products to the United States should be penalised,” it added in a statement.
The United States is Spain’s sixth-largest export market for goods, according to the Bank of Spain.
The country’s trade with the United States is more focused on services compared with the rest of the eurozone, so the tariffs will have less impact, it added.
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