Prior to vote, Szijjártó reiterated Hungarian government’s intention to vote against EU counter-tariffs

The Hungarian government will vote against EU counter-tariffs, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said, repeating his previous announcement while the government was in session on Wednesday.

The US administration announced tariffs on almost every country in the world last week, including members of the European Union. The EU was slapped with 20 percent based on a one-size-fits-all formula. Prior to that, the US administration had imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminium.

The Foreign Minister reiterated that based on their calculations, the expected EU countermeasures will mean a price increase amounting to about 18 billion forints in Hungary. Products such as contact lenses, beauty products and plastic pipes used in construction will become more expensive.

Speaking about the EU in the third person singular, Szijjártó said: “Unfortunately, the European Union made a serious mistake, as the current situation could have been prevented. But now that it has failed to do so, the most important thing is that Brussels does not make this situation worse.”

Today's expected vote on the counter-tariffs is not going to be taken by "Brussels", but by the representatives of the member states. A unanimous agreement in the body is not required for a decision.

Although Szijjártó did not elaborate on what mistake the EU has made, he has regularly blamed the European Union for the actions of US President Donald Trump – he did so both on Monday and in the past. In his view, the EU body failed to negotiate or did so inefficiently and did not propose reducing tariffs on cars to 2.5 percent, as the Hungarian government had requested.

It emerged on Monday that Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had explored the possibility of a reciprocal zero tariff on cars during a meeting in February (They also held talks in March, about which Šefčovič informed the member states' Foreign Ministers, including Szijjártó on Monday).

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday that this option had been "offered long ago and repeatedly, but there was no adequate response". After the plan became publicly known, Peter Navarro, White House Senior Trade Counselor called it a "good, small start". But he also called for a reduction of other barriers, including VAT (the EU's highest rate of 27 per cent is applied only in Hungary), alongside tariffs. Among others, he also asked that "pork, corn, beef" coming from the US, which allows genetic modification of animals and plants, be allowed to be sold to the EU.

Trump did not consider the zero percent offer to be sufficient either, he cited the purchase of "energy" as a way of closing the trade deficit in goods. Von der Leyen had actually suggested replacing Russian gas with liquefied natural gas from the US as early as last November in Budapest.

The EU is not alone in preparing retaliatory measures: early Tuesday afternoon, China announced that it would impose a retaliatory tariff of 84 percent on products imported from the United States.