CGTN Europe spoke with Arancha González Laya, former Foreign Minister of Spain who is now Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po.
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00:00Arantxa Gonzalez-Laya is the former foreign minister of Spain and is
00:05currently Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po and
00:10joins us now. Thank you so much for your time. The US Treasury Secretary Scott
00:14Besant is warning that those who get closer to China will, and I'm quoting him,
00:18cut their own throats. Is Spain in dangerous territory with this show of
00:24support for China? No, I think what Spain is doing is no different from what the
00:31European Union is doing, which is making sure that they cultivate trade and
00:37investment relations with partners around the world. China is an important
00:42trade and investment partner of the European Union, and it's only normal that
00:48this relation is cultivated between both. And I think it's very important,
00:55especially now when there are countries that are renouncing to have robust trade
01:01and investment policies and connections with other parts of the world, that the
01:05European Union, that Spain show a different way of doing and that we stand by that.
01:10President just spoke of this 90-day tariff pause as an opportunity for negotiation.
01:18What do you think Spain in particular should seek to do in this period?
01:23Well, on international trade, Spain doesn't negotiate. It's the European Commission
01:28that negotiates for the 27 member states. But if I had to sum up what the European Union wants,
01:35what Spain wants, what Spain wants, therefore, is the removal of the unfair tariffs that have been imposed
01:42by the U.S. on Europe. Why? Because they run counter to the interests of American companies in Europe
01:51and European companies in America. It runs counter to the 4.4 billion U.S. dollar daily trade between the two blocks.
02:00So let's negotiate the removal of those tariffs. And if there are opportunities to bring up as much as trade
02:08to zero obstacles, the better it would be.
02:12China says this is a moment for countries who believe in fair trade and globalization to stand with them
02:19against what they are calling the United States bullying. Do you agree with them?
02:24I think it's very important today to stand by the rules of international trade, to stand by the World Trade Organization,
02:36to stand by international trade governed by rules, rules that are applicable to everyone, rules that protect against unilateralism
02:48and against protectionism and against protectionism. And the more countries around the world can gather around those principles,
02:55in my view, the safer we will be from a trade point of view and the more prosperous we would be.
03:01So I think it's very important that China stands by those rules and that Europe stands by those rules too.
03:09Maybe together with many other countries in the world, we protect this house, this common house, the World Trade Organization
03:16that we have together built along the last 80 years.
03:20Well, thank you so much for your time, Arantxa Gonzalez-Laya, a former foreign minister of Spain.