Cabinet meeting to focus on Trump tariff response

Thursday’s cabinet meeting will discuss the issue of tariffs applied by the president of the United States of America and debate possible responses, following the government’s meetings with business associations.

An official source from the prime minister’s office told the media today that the cabinet meeting will centre on tariffs. This comes after the president of ATP (Textile and Clothing Association of Portugal) said on Tuesday that the government was preparing a “robust” plan with measures to support companies.

“The minister was very confident that he will soon present very comprehensive measures, from training, internationalisation and export aid,” said Mário Jorge Machado, after a meeting with Economy Minister Pedro Reis.

The Ministry of Economy is meeting with business associations from various sectors between Tuesday and today to assess ” the impact and mitigation measures ” of the tariffs that US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday. The tariffs, which will be 20% on products imported from the European Union and 25% on the automotive, steel, and aluminium sectors, will be in addition to those already in place.

Pedro Nuno Santos, PS secretary-general, had already accused the government of inaction in response to the US tariffs and defended support for the diversification of markets for exporting companies and public credit insurance.

At the end of a visit to Lisbon’s Benfica Market, the Socialist leader pointed out that until today, when these tariffs come into force, the PSD/CDS-PP government has not provided “any package of aid and support to the industry potentially most affected by the US tariffs”.

“What we need is a government capable of acting quickly,” he said.

The tariffs, which the US President calls “reciprocal”, come into force today and are in addition to the global minimum tariff of 10% that began to apply on 5 April.

US President Donald Trump announced last Wednesday, on a day he dubbed “liberation day”, a 10% tariff on 184 countries and territories, including the European Union (EU), and an additional tariff on those he considers to be the “worst offenders”.

This is a “reciprocal” tariff, which is about half the rate applied by other countries to the US, Trump said, showing a table with the level of trade and non-trade barriers on US products in various countries.

It includes a 20% tax on imports from the European Union and 34% on Chinese products, while products from India will pay 26%, Taiwan 32% and Vietnam 46%.

Other countries are also on the list, but they may enter into negotiations with the US to prevent the tariffs from being applied immediately.

The EU expects to present its response to the 20% tariffs imposed by the United States at the beginning of next week.