Mallorca Bulletin

SPAIN LOOKS EAST

Spain will pursue closer trade ties with China in the interests of its citizens and of the EU, its agriculture minister Luis Planas said, rejecting a U.S. warning that moving closer to the Asian country would be “cutting your own throat”. “We have excellent trade relations with China which we intend to not only continue having, but expanding,” Planas told reporters from Ho Chi Minh City. Planas had been asked about earlier comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who criticised Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo's suggestion that Europe should more closely align with China. “That would be cutting your own throat,” Bessent told a banking event in Washington, adding that China would continue to produce too many goods and dump them on markets elsewhere. Sanchez and Planas are heading to Beijing later this week to forge closer economic ties amid the global fallout of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policy, seeking to position Spain as an interlocutor between China and the EU and attract Chinese investment. Trump's punishing tariffs, which the president says are aimed at ending U.S. trade deficits with many countries, have upended the global trading order, raising fears of recession and wiping trillions of dollars off the market value of major firms. Planas said that the way the U.S. was negotiating with trading partners did not appear “respectful”. He added that Spain defended its interests within the framework of the European Union. Seguir leyendo