The Vice President of the European Central Bank, ECB, Luis de Guindos on Monday said trade tariffs announced by President Donald Trump of the United States could trigger economic uncertainty, stressing that the impact on inflation is less clear.
Trump’s plan for 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports into the United States, on top of existing metals duties, represents another major trade escalation.
“Today we woke up to the issue of steel and aluminium. Apart from the geopolitical risks, I think that the policy of the new American administration obviously creates a situation of huge uncertainty,” De Guindos said.
According to him, the implementation of tariffs would create a supply shock which would affect global economic growth.
He said it was important to avoid a trade war, adding that Europeans needed to be careful in their response to potential US trade tariffs.
The ECB’s number two official said that inflation in the euro zone was converging towards the ECB’s medium goal of 2 percent and that decisions on the bank’s future monetary policy would be taken meeting by meeting.
