Marques Mendes: Government should discuss tariffs with partners

Presidential candidate Luís Marques Mendes advised the government on Monday to sit down with social partners to find a way to support Portuguese companies following the "possible agreement" between the United States and the European Union.

"Is the deal good? No, it's not good. Was there a better alternative? There wasn't . So, is this the only possible deal? It's the only possible deal, even if it's not good and brings problems," Marques Mendes told reporters on the sidelines of a campaign event in Lisbon.

Considering that "the deal is done" and now it is necessary to "resolve the future," the presidential candidate supported by the PSD made a recommendation to the government led by social democrat Luís Montenegro.

"I believe the time has come for the government to sit down with social partners, especially businesses, and together find ways to support Portuguese companies so they can diversify the destinations of their exports," he suggested.

The objective, according to Marques Mendes, is for Portuguese companies to “find other countries, as an alternative, to sell their products.”

"Because it will be more difficult to sell to the United States, we need to find other countries to export to, both in Europe and outside of Europe, and this must be done through a joint effort between companies, the various social partners, and also with the support and encouragement of the government," he urged.

When asked whether the government should have acted sooner on the tariff issue, the presidential candidate began by responding that, "if it's done now, it's well in time."

"I don't think the important thing is whether it should have been done or not. The important thing is that it be done. I think we need to have proactive solutions and constructive proposals. And that's why I'm making this recommendation: if the government wants to, it can go ahead; if it doesn't, it can't," he noted.

From Marques Mendes' perspective, " it is for exceptional moments that there must be exceptional responses ."

"And I think this would be an exceptional response and would be welcome if, in the coming days or weeks, the government and social partners came together, engaged in dialogue, and talked to find other countries to sell the products to," he reiterated.

For the social democrat, “nobody sees this agreement as a good agreement, particularly for Europe , obviously.”

"Now, it's probably a possible deal, because the alternative was worse. What's the alternative? The alternative was a trade war, and that would be even worse, with even more negative consequences, especially for Europeans. So, things are as they are," he said.

The trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States , reached on Sunday, sets US tariffs on European products at 15%.

The agreement also provides for the EU's commitment to purchase US$750 billion (around €642 billion) of US energy — aimed in particular at replacing Russian gas —, the investment of an additional US$600 billion (€514 billion) and an increase in military equipment purchases.

The US and EU countries exchange around €4.4 billion worth of goods and services daily.