The victims of the EU-US trade war In Lithuania they wait for J. Biden: they compared us with the Chinese with D. Trump | 15MAX

Openness is probably the most important expectation of Lithuanian companies for the future president of the United States.

Biden won the election of the world’s largest economic leader, according to US media forecasts, and Trump’s attempts to challenge the results seem unlikely to many.

“This is unequivocally optimistic,” 15 minutes said Vidmantas Janulevičius, president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists. “The United States will continue to be our longstanding strategic partner and we look to the end of restrictions and protectionism.”

“Compare with the Chinese”

The high-tech company BOD Group, led by V. Janulevičius herself, was directly confronted with Trump’s decisions to impose customs duties on various European products.

This business was affected by tariffs on solar cells introduced in 2018.

“We were like the Chinese,” the businessman said, adding that the US market had closed for his business.

If the EU starts trashing American tech companies, Biden will have to react.

According to V. Janulevičius, several other companies of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists faced the same consequences.

To reduce the trade deficit and shift production to the United States, Trump introduced tariffs in 2018 on steel and aluminum imported from several countries, including the EU.

This triggered an exchange of taxes on various assets. Trump did not skimp on America’s trade deficit with Europe, saying the EU was “worse than China” or that the EU “was treating us very badly.”

Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 15 minutes According to the data provided, the duties imposed on solar panels affected 1.7-1.8 million. euros in exports to the US

Customs duties on steel and aluminum derivatives also affected 2.5 million. The country’s business was also affected by customs duties on cheese, butter and pork.

Kęstutis Girnius, associate professor at Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science, says tensions between the EU and the US may subside when J. Biden takes office.

However, Biden’s somewhat friendlier attitude towards Europe will not be enough, countries will have to find points of consensus and the European Union will have to take steps to reduce tensions, he says.

Already after the US elections, the EU announced on Monday that it would impose tariffs on more than 4 billion. dollars in U.S. goods, and on Tuesday he formally accused the U.S. e-commerce giant of abusing Amazon’s control over e-commerce platforms to distort competition.

In addition, Europe’s desire to tax digital services is a worrying phenomenon across the Atlantic, a sector in which Americans have a large market share.

“If the EU starts trashing American tech companies, Biden will have to react, because it will explain that he is trying to downplay the biggest American companies out of jealousy,” the critic said.