Spain has a meagre contribution to NATO and as a consequence, it could face 100% tariffs from the US, according to President Donald Trump, who unfortunately confused it with a BRICS country.
When a journalist asked what would happen to NATO countries that do not meet the 2% spending target, Trump replied that Spain’s contribution is “very low.”
He continued that if the BRICS nations want to miss the target, they can, but the US will impose “at least a 100% tariff on business they do with the United States.”
Evidently confusing Spain for a member of BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and five other nations, and despite being corrected by a journalist, he reiterated that tariffs were on the cards.
RTVE later reported that Trump had likely thought the ‘S’ for South Africa was an ‘S’ for Spain. It also appears he thought BRICS countries were linked to NATO.
A high-ranking EU official told Euractiv that their main fear is that Trump does not understand Europe and how it works. They are concerned that this lack of understanding will require them to explain everything to him to prevent him from making decisions without realising the consequences.
Spain does not meet the 2% of GDP spending on defence, let alone the 4% demanded by Trump. It spends the least out of all 32 NATO members at just 1.28% of the GDP.
Some 23 other members have reached the 2% mark, with Poland on top with a target of 4.7% this year.
Meanwhile, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles (PSOE) recalled on Tuesday that Spain is a serious, reliable, responsible and committed ally of NATO, with over 3,800 military personnel on peacekeeping missions and a presence in Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Turkey.
A government spokesperson also quickly downplayed the BRICS mistake, stating that Spain is not part of the BRICS and is not an emerging country.
Avoiding direct criticism of Trump, they continued that the US is a reliable partner and stressed that Madrid will seek to maintain good ties with the new administration.
But the junior coalition partner Sumar was not so measured, with Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz calling Trump dangerous and sounding the alarm over his strategy to “annihilate the entire European space.”
“The challenge today must be more Europe, more democracy (…), more human rights, and firm action against digital and technological monopolies”, the minister added.
The BRICS was created as a counterbalance to the G7 bloc and includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, which all together represent around half of the world’s population. Critics say the BRICS has anti-Western and anti-American objectives due to several initiatives that counter those put forward by the G7, the EU, and the US.
Among other initiatives, the BRICS group of countries is considering creating an alternative currency to the dollar to counterbalance the US and Chinese giants.
(Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es)
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Publish date : 2025-01-21 21:47:00
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The post Trump targets Spain with tariffs in BRICS blunder first appeared on Love Europe.
Author : love-europe
Publish date : 2025-01-22 06:47:04
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