BUDAPEST, April 9. /TASS/. Budapest has decided not to vote in the European Union in support of retaliatory import tariffs against goods from the US and believes that the trade dispute with the Americans should be resolved through negotiations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced after a cabinet meeting.
"If the European Union also introduces higher tariffs, this will not be the best response to the tariffs set by the Americans. The best response is negotiations. Therefore, we will not vote in favor of the proposal that the European Union introduce tariffs that could compete with those in the United States. European tariffs will only make the situation worse and cause prices to rise, and we do not want the Hungarian people to suffer from this," Szijjarto said in a video address broadcast by the M1 television channel.
The minister lamented that the European Commission had failed to resolve this dispute with the new American administration in time, and now "wants to make the situation worse by focusing not on negotiations with the United States, but on retaliatory measures." He stressed that the introduction of retaliatory tariffs will only "cause additional difficulties and even greater damage to the European economy and the people of Europe."
"Tariffs on goods that will be supplied from the United States to Europe will lead to higher prices here in Europe," Szijjarto warned. According to him, the European Commission has compiled "a list of hundreds of American goods on which it wants to impose duties."
For Hungary, this would mean a general price increase of 18 billion forints (about 45 million euros).
"For example, goods such as contact lenses, cosmetics and plastic pipes used in construction will become more expensive," the Foreign Minister said.
US decisions and EU countermeasures
Earlier, Szijjarto noted that Hungary's objection alone would not be enough to prevent the EU from taking countermeasures against the US and to try to resolve the dispute through negotiations. He explained that decisions on trade such as import tariffs are made in the European community by a qualified majority vote, not by consensus. But the minister noted that some other EU countries, including one large state, also expressed doubts about the advisability of introducing tit-for-tat countermeasures against the US.
On April 7, European Commissioner for Trade Policy and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic announced at a press conference following a ministerial meeting in Luxembourg that the EU Council should approve the measures proposed by the European Commission on April 9 and would implement the first package on April 15, and the rest on May 15.
On April 2, Trump announced the introduction of customs duties on products from 185 countries and territories. Russia is not on this list. Universal 10% tariffs came into force on April 5, while individual tariffs became effective on April 9. In addition, the US administration introduced customs duties of 25% on all imported cars from April 3.