‘I'm no barbarian at the gates' … the Romanian populist on path to power
At the top of the escalator next to the European Parliament's forum bar, George Simion is met by an Italian eurosceptic who is one of Giorgia Meloni's protégés. There are selfies and pleasantries exchanged in Italian.
Then the Romanian is mobbed by a group of young Spanish women, members of the hard-right Vox party who rush to pose with the emerging star of European populism.
There's no break for Simion as he's then greeted by Matthieu Valet, 39, one of Marine Le Pen's rising stars in her National Rally. The two men embrace. 'We both have the same problem,' Simion tells the French MEP who is a member of Le Pen's Patriots for Europe group in Brussels, which includes the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban.
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BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
US tariff turmoil makes Spain's flagship foods seek other markets
It's lunchtime in a bar in the southern Spanish city of Seville. The kitchen is humming with activity, and behind the bar a member of staff pours cold beer from a tap into a another uses a carving knife to cut slices from a large leg of jamón ibérico, or Iberian ham, placing each one on a plate, to be served as an are few more Spanish scenes. And there are few more Spanish products than jamón ibérico, whose unique salty flavour is renowned across the world, and part of a national cured ham industry worth nearly €750m ($850m; £630m) each year in he watches the jamón being carved, Jaime Fernández, international commercial director for the Grupo Osborne, which produces wine, sherry and the renowned Cinco Jotas brand of ham, describes it as a "flagship" national foodstuff."It's one of the most iconic gastronomic products from Spain," he says, pointing out how the pigs used to make the ham are reared in the wild and fed on acorns. "It represents our tradition, our culture, our essence." But jamón ibérico, like products across Spain and the rest of Europe, is facing the threat of trade tariffs imposed by US President Donald was no tariff on Spanish ham exports to the US until April of this year, when a 20% charge on all European imports was suddenly introduced, dropping to 10% pending in May Trump unsettled European exporters again when he said that the tariff for all EU goods could rise as high as 50% if trade talks with Brussels do not come to a successful agreement. The current deadline for this is 9 July."The United States is one of our top, priority markets," says Mr Fernández. "The uncertainty is there, and it complicates our medium-and long-term planning, investments and commercial development."The tariffs, he adds, "pose a threat to our industry." Spain's overall economy is in rude health. The IMF has forecast growth this year of 2.5% – much higher than the other main EU economies – and unemployment is at a 17-year the tariff issue comes as a blow for the country's pork industry, which represents more than 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, and is Europe's for cured ham in the US has grown substantially in recent years, and it has become the biggest importer of Spanish ham outside the the Spanish industry now faces the prospect of having to raise retail prices for US consumers and therefore losing competitivity to local products, or those not subject to the same tariffs. Spain's olive oil sector is in a similar quandary. The world's biggest producer of olive oil, Spain had set its sights on the US as a burgeoning market whose growth was driven by growing awareness of the health benefits of the the the tariff turmoil comes just as Spanish producers and exporters have recovered from a drought that slashed harvests in the south of the country, and sent prices temporarily US represents half of world olive oil consumption outside the is also the country whose imports of the foodstuff from Spain have grown the most in recent years, increasing from approximately 300,000 tonnes per year a decade ago to around 430,000 tonnes, says Rafael Pico Lapuente, director general of the Spanish association of olive oil exporters (ASOLIVA).Much will depend, he says, on the final tariff set for the EU."If there is a 10% tariff which is permanent, without differentiating between countries of origin, it's not going to create a distortion on the international market," says Mr Pico explains that American consumers might have to absorb the extra cost. And although local US producers of olive oil or similar products would gain a competitive edge, their output is small enough for it not to concern the likes of he says it would be "a different story" if Trump introduced higher tariffs for the EU than for competitor olive oil countries outside the bloc – such as Turkey, the world's second-largest producer, or Tunisia, an emerging grower. That scenario, he says, would have a major impact on the world market and Spanish producers. But variations in tariffs between countries or trade blocs would also lead to a certain amount rule-bending and even chaos, according to Javier Díaz-Giménez, a professor of economics at the IESE business school in Madrid. He suggests two of Spain's direct neighbours as a hypothetical example."If Spain has a 20% tariff and Morocco and Andorra have a 10% tariff, all the Spanish products that can go through Morocco or Andorra… will do so."He adds: "They will be first exported to Morocco and Andorra and from there re-exported to the United States with a 10% tariff."And it's going to be really hard to make sure that these olives came from Andorra proper and not from Spain. Is Trump going to do something about that?" For now, Spanish producers and exporters must hold their breath as EU negotiations take place with Washington. For Mr Pico Lapuente, a big cause of concern is the influence – or as he sees it, lack of influence – his sector wields within the European trade bloc."The negotiations representing the EU's 27 countries are carried out by Brussels," he says. "In these negotiations, industrial products have a much bigger influence than food."I wouldn't like it if, in this negotiation, food products like olive oil were used as mere bargaining chips in order to get a better deal for Europe's industrial products. That worries me. And I hope it doesn't happen."A spokesperson for the European Commission told the BBC that in negotiations with the US it will act "in defence of European interests, protecting its workers, consumers and its industries".Jaime Fernández, of the Grupo Osborne, believes his industry could live with the 10% tariff that is currently in place without suffering too much a 20% charge, he says would cause the industry "to reconsider how to accelerate growth in some other markets, which would eventually lead to the relocation of resources from the US".He says his company is already looking at alternative markets in which to invest, such as China, or proven European ham consumers such as France, Italy and Díaz-Giménez says that is the logical response to the current uncertainty."If I was the CEO of any company with a high exposure to the United States… I would have sent my entire sales team to find other markets," he says."And by now, they would have found them. There would be plan Bs and plan Cs, to make sure that we have reduced this exposure to the US."
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Netflix defies Trump tariffs with $1B investment
Netflix is making a huge international investment, despite President Donald Trump 's wishes. The streaming giant's CEO, Ted Sarandos, announced a $1.14 billion investment to help produce a pipeline of new shows in Spain . He made the declaration during a press conference in Tres Cantos, Spain, on Tuesday. Sarandos said the money will flow into the region between 2025 and 2028. It comes after the President said in May that he would slap a 100 percent tariff on any movie produced outside of the US . Netflix first started making content in Spain in 2015, producing well-watched shows like Money Heist. The major film and TV producer has continued to build production capacity, including a 10 soundstage studio complex in Madrid. 'Alongside your rich cultural heritage, vibrant entertainment industry and brilliant creative talent, Spain is also a great place to do business,' Sarandos said to an audience of journalists, movie producers, and local politicians. 'The last 10 years have been nothing short of extraordinary.' Trump's tariff announcement earlier this year has confused film production leaders, and offered little detail about how the levy would work in practice. 'Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States,' the President claimed on his Truth Social platform. 'Hollywood and many other areas within the USA are being devastated.' Like the sweeping tariffs placed on other industries — like 50 percent steel and aluminum levies or 25 percent automotive import fees — President Trump believes that the higher taxes will motivate increased investment in US production. Netflix's stock tumbled the day after the social media post . But it's impossible to know the knock-on impacts if Trump's policy was implemented. The White House hasn't revealed how it plans on assessing the value of international films before the tariff is applied. 'Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump's directive to safeguard our country's national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again,' White House spokesman, Kush Desai, said. In 2024, film industry experts reported a schedule of 5,048 total film and TV shoot days in Hollywood. That is good for a 36.4 percent drop from the five-year average. Other US production hubs, like Atlanta and Austin, have seen slower growth. Analysts worry that Trump's potential policy could make streamers slow down the number of shows they could produce. 'There's also a risk of retaliatory tariffs against American content overseas,' Barton Crockett, an analyst with Rosenblatt Securities, told Reuters. 'Raising the cost to produce movies could lead studios to make less content.' Hollywood production companies had already been in the crosshairs of back-and-forth tariff threats in the US trade war with China. Beijing is restricting the number of movies produced in Hollywood that can play in China, a move that can destroy the bottom line for multiple major US producers. Netflix's investment in Spain also comes as the company wrangles with regulators in other countries.
Reuters
10 hours ago
- Reuters
China's vice president visits Spain as mutual courtship blossoms
MADRID, June 10 (Reuters) - China's Vice President Han Zheng arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a four-day trip during which he will meet with King Felipe and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a further sign of increasingly close economic and political ties. Han's visit is taking place two months after Sanchez visited Beijing for the third time in as many years. There, he sought to woo China's President Xi Jinping as global trade reels from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs policy. The Socialist premier has been vying to position Madrid as an interlocutor between China and the European Union, as well as to attract more Chinese investment in advanced technology such as batteries, electric vehicles and hydrogen. Last year, auto maker Stellantis and Chinese battery maker CATL announced plans to build one of Europe's largest EV battery factories in Spain. However, not all is idyllic in Spain's relations with China. Beijing's anti-dumping inquiry into EU pork launched last year in retaliation for Brussels' tariffs on Chinese EVs hit Spain, a top exporter, hard. Sanchez's last visit to China, however, clinched expanded access for Spanish exports of pork stomach - a product widely consumed in China but not previously authorised. Han will meet with Sanchez on Wednesday morning in Madrid, Sanchez's office said, while King Felipe will receive the Chinese official on Thursday, according to the royal household's agenda. The Spanish monarch is also scheduled to visit China later this year to commemorate the signing of a strategic partnership 20 years ago. After his meetings with Sanchez and Spain's king, Han is set to travel to Seville to meet Andalusia's regional leader, Juan Manuel Moreno, who last year secured over 2.5 billion euros ($2.86 billion) of Chinese investments in the southern Spanish region. According to projections by tourism lobby Turespana, the number of visitors to Spain from China is expected to surge by 36% this summer compared to last year, making Spain the European destination with the biggest growth in tourists from the Asian nation. ($1 = 0.8749 euros)
