April 9, 2025 UPDATE 1

A news update

Newsroom, 09.04.2025, 17:34

USR – The National Bureau of the Save Romania Union has decided, by a large majority, to convene the Political Committee to decide on the withdrawal of support in the presidential race for the head of the parliamentary group, Elena Lasconi. The Political Committee, a body representing the extended leadership of the party, is also expected to decide on the support for the mayor general of Bucharest, Nicuşor Dan, who is running as an independent in the May election. The USR Vice-President, Timişoara’s mayor Dominic Fritz, explained that this decision is necessary for at least one pro-European candidate to reach the second round and stated that USR must put responsibility for the country first. Elena Lasconi, however, ruled out a withdrawal of her candidacy from the presidential race. She considered the party’s decision to support Nicuşor Dan to be extremely bad and expressed her belief that she would be the ’best president’ of Romania.

Customs tariffs – The EU adopted its first retaliatory measures on Wednesday against tariffs imposed by the US President Donald Trump, taxing a range of US products such as motorcycles, soybeans, poultry and rice, the European Commission announced. The measures are a response to the 25% tariffs announced by Washington in mid-March on steel and aluminum imports. The EU has stressed that it is ready to suspend its tariffs ‘at any time’ if a ‘fair and balanced’ agreement is reached with Washington. Over the past few months, the 27 EU member states have been hit with three rounds of additional tariffs by the US and have responded in a similar manner. Brussels is also planning to present its response to US tariffs on cars and other European products early next week. On the other hand, the US administration confirmed that, starting on Wednesday, imports from China will be subject to a 104% customs tariff. The decision came after Donald Trump said he would increase tariffs on Chinese products if Beijing did not withdraw additional tariffs imposed on the United States. China accuses the US administration of acting like a bully and announces that it will retaliate. In Bucharest, the interim president, Ilie Bolojan, spoke in favor of continuing trade negotiations between the EU and the US. (LS)