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Ghent (Belgium) – Europe is able to defend its trade in opposition to unfair practices by overseas international locations, warned on Tuesday the brand new Vice-President of the Fee accountable for Prosperity and Industrial Technique, Stéphane Séjourné, throughout a go to to the ArcelorMittal metal plant in Ghent (northwest Belgium).
“We can’t be the one open market. I say this to the Individuals: if they need entry to the European market, we should have entry to the American market,” stated the French official to AFP, questioned about the specter of tariffs brandished by President-elect Donald Trump.
This go to to a metal plant using 5 thousand individuals marks the precedence given to financial competitiveness by the brand new European govt.
“The Fee has been working for weeks on a plan for the metal trade,” defined Stéphane Séjourné.
The European metal trade is burdened by Chinese language competitors and caught in an costly ecological transition. It pays extra for its power than its American or Asian rivals.
Supporting the trade is “not contradictory with environmental targets, quite the opposite,” estimated the Spaniard Teresa Ribera, Vice-President of the Fee accountable for Ecological Transition and Competitors, additionally current in Ghent on Tuesday (December 3, 2024).
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