The tariffs that US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose on the European Union would not significantly affect bilateral trade between Lithuania and the United States, but their economic impact would be felt more sharply by the bloc’s major member states, President Gitanas Nausėda said on Monday.
“The direct consequences for our economy would not be very significant, but the indirect ones would be,” Nausėda told LRT after the European Council meeting in Brussels.
“Since we are linked through production chains with other large EU countries, the indirect effects could be more pronounced,” he said.
The president noted that Lithuania’s direct economic ties with the US are “much less intense than those of many other countries”. Lithuania runs a trade deficit with the US.
“In other words, we export less than we import. And mineral products or goods made from petroleum products account for a significant share of our exports,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, Nausėda commented that “both sides usually lose” in trade wars and that potential disagreements between the US and the EU over tariffs could still turn into a “positive discussion”, such as aiming to buy more liquefied natural gas from the US.
Trump signed an executive order over the weekend to impose stringent tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China. The tariffs were set to go into effect on Tuesday but were delayed for a month for Mexico and Canada.
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