00:00Now, what has been announced happened. Donald Trump announced tariffs, 20% tariffs against the European Union.
00:07The EU had time to prepare. When is it going to react now?
00:11Of course, we are well prepared. We know President Trump from his first time in office.
00:17And we will have the first tranche of countermeasures on the 14th of April and we are working on a second tranche.
00:24How long will this take?
00:26I guess one month, because it's a really democratic process involving Parliament and the Member States and the Commission.
00:33In Europe, not only one man is deciding.
00:36Let us talk about sectors. Do you think that which sectors will be hit and also is the digital sector going to be hit?
00:43First of all, it will be goods coming from the United States in the countermeasure package.
00:50Agriculture goods, textile, industrial goods.
00:54And let's see if it's necessary to put services in this package as well.
01:00It's really depending on the volume and on the structure.
01:04Of course, our legislation is open to that. Let's see.
01:10There are also even harder measures the European Union could take, like the anti-coercive tool.
01:17Do you think which would then also restrict market access for U.S. firms in the European Union, for example?
01:24Do you think that this is something which will come in the near future?
01:29I hope not, but it's there.
01:32I was a rapporteur for this anti-coercion instrument and if necessary will use it.
01:37This gives, of course, a lot of possibilities to restrict participation in public procurement, market access restriction, some elements regarding intellectual property rights and so on.
01:51And we will use it if it's clear that the United States is pushing us in a coercive way to change our legislation.
01:59This is not acceptable.
02:01The European Union had time. Now it will take another month.
02:05Do you think to have more countermeasures, do you think that this is going to impress the U.S. or like going to change their course?
02:13I'm not the mindset of President Trump, but we have a democratic process and we will not really escalate the process.
02:24We will look to our damage and then construct our framework for countermeasures.
02:31This takes, of course, time. We are serious.
02:35One month is not so much compared to other processes inside the European Union.
02:41Mr. Lange, thank you very much for your time.
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