Dear Jonas,
Welcome to Brussels. Norway is member of the European family. We are united by shared values and integrated through our Single Market. When faced with shared challenges, we are keen to explore common solutions. And that is what our discussion today showed. From support to Ukraine, and defence, to the way we are going about the US tariffs. Our cooperation makes us stronger.
On defence, Norway will be able to participate in the joint procurement of SAFE. And industries in Norway will be treated like EU industries. On Ukraine, Norway has been a key supporter. Our financial support combined with your own assistance will make a difference for the Ukrainians. We also discussed progress on the Green Alliance, which we signed in April two years ago. We are turning words into reality through concrete projects, from offshore wind over hydrogen to CCS. In particular, we agreed to speed up coordination between Norway, Member States and our companies to get even more projects up and running. Because in the global clean tech race, we are stronger together.
We also discussed the effects of the US tariffs. These tariffs come first and foremost at immense costs for US consumers and businesses. But at the same time, they have a massive impact on the global economy. Especially hard hit are the developing countries. This is a major turning point for the United States. Nonetheless, we stand ready to negotiate with the US. Indeed, we have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods as we have successfully done with many other trading partners. Because Europe is always ready for a good deal. So we keep it on the table. But we are also prepared to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests. And in addition, we will also protect ourselves against indirect effects through trade diversion. For this purpose, we will set up an "Import Surveillance Task Force". We will work with industry to make sure we have the necessary evidence base for our policy measures. We will stay in close contact to work together to minimize effect on each other.
Today and tomorrow, I continue my intense outreach to industrial stakeholders in Europe. I met the steel and aluminium industry this morning, as well as BusinessEurope and SME United. I am meeting industry automotive still today and the pharmaceutical industry tomorrow. We are discussing the response to the US, but also the other two pillars of our strategy: strengthening the Single Market by lifting barriers, and diversifying our trade relations. Especially further strengthening our trade relations is critical. We will be focused like a laser beam on the 83% of global trade beyond the US. This is why we are deepening our relations with our trading partners: like the deals done with Mercosur, Mexico, Switzerland, and we are working with India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and many others. Europe stands together for our businesses and with our businesses for all Europeans in the EU and beyond. Our unity is our strength.
