Sanchez admits the Basque industry will be most affected by the US trade war

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has advocated in Congress on Wednesday the need to boost the single European market and diversify trade relations to deal with the trade war opened by the US administration.

In response to EH Bildu MP Mertxe Aizpurua, Sanchez has insisted that she has not "very enthusiastically welcomed" the agreement reached between the European Commission and the United States and has stressed that Spain is not one of the countries with the most risk, although she has acknowledged that the Basque Country will be more affected than other communities.

Aizpurua anticipates losses of EUR 700 million for the Basque industry in key sectors such as the automotivesector  and calls for more concrete measures to mitigate these impacts . The Member calls on the Spanish Government to be more firm in the face of an agreement which, in his opinion, involves political and economic dependence.

Sanchez, for his part, has stressed that the priority is market diversification and the search for new trade allies and recalled that removing obstacles in the single market would amount to a sharp reduction in tariffs on services and manufactures, according to the International Monetary Fund.