Markus Buchheit (AfD), ESN Member of the European Parliament, states:
“The so-called Turnberry Agreement was, from the very beginning, an unbalanced deal at Europe’s expense. While the EU was prepared to abolish all tariffs on US industrial goods, European exports are now being burdened with flat-rate tariffs. It is also particularly problematic that trade tariffs are increasingly being used as a political instrument of pressure.
Those who suffer most are our small and medium-sized enterprises as well as the citizens. Higher tariffs mean rising prices, disrupted supply chains, and risks to jobs. That is why we call for the EU’s commitments under the Turnberry deal to be suspended as long as the US does not honor its commitments. Free trade is important, but not at the price of our economic self-determination and sovereignty.
The AfD also views particularly critically the extension of the 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum to numerous derivative products, which is hitting European companies hard. At the same time, the Turnberry Agreement was concluded without sufficient parliamentary oversight, another example of the democratic deficits in EU trade policy.”
