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European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told CNBC on Wednesday that Europe must “get ready” and anticipate possible trade tariffs imposed by incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.
She said Trump was “very wise to not impose a package of tariffs on his first day as president … because a package of tariffs doesn’t necessarily give you the results you expect.”
As a result, she said she expected Trump’s tariffs to be “more selective and targeted.”
“What we need to do in Europe is prepare ourselves and anticipate what’s going to happen in order to respond,” she told CNBC’s Karen Tso at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on goods imported from the European Union into the United States and has repeated those claims since taking office on Monday, telling reporters that the EU “treats us very, very badly. So, they’re going to be punished.” tariff. “
EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told CNBC on Wednesday that the EU would defend its economic interests if needed. Respond “in an appropriate manner.”
‘One way’ to deal with U.S. trade policy
Lagarde also called for the removal of trade barriers within Europe, noting that despite the desire to establish a single market, there are still obstacles that sometimes hinder the smooth flow of goods and services.
“I think that was one of the points that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made yesterday – let’s make sure we remove the barriers that we can control,” Lagarde said, without giving details.
Lagarde said she hoped this would happen in the coming weeks, describing it as “a way of responding to changes in U.S. trade policy.”
“Be strong at home, make sure you trade domestically, sell and buy domestically, save domestically, invest domestically. It’s not that we want to be protectionist because lower barriers have told us that we think trade is actually very It helps,” Lagarde added.
—CNBC’s Katrina Bishop contributed to this report.
