The results of the US elections will have an impact on bilateral trade relations
The Director General of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Inmaculada Riera, emphasised the future implications that could affect the current good relations between the United States and Spain, depending on who occupies the Oval Office.
Spanish companies in infrastructure, transport and renewable energies are leaders in the United States. ‘I would like to emphasise that transatlantic relations have resumed in various aspects and we hope that this will continue’, she said.
The Director General of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce alluded to the challenge that the new US Administration will pose for transatlantic business relations, within the current global economic context. In this sense, Inmaculada Riera reiterated that bilateral relations between the two countries are vital, and if there are economic sectors with high added value, it is because the two economies are interconnected.
In this way, Inmaculada Riera began a keynote speech at Casa de América, as part of the seminar organised in collaboration with the Spain-US Council Foundation and the US Embassy in Spain and Andorra, whose aime was to analyse the international implications of the future US presidential election, once the electoral process takes place on 5 November. Companies will face major challenges, which is why the role of both governments is key to guaranteeing an investment framework with reinforcement of synergies that will help to boost growth.
According to Riera, the new US industrial policy is based on three pillars: the Green Economy Transition Act; the Public Investment in Infrastructure Act; and the law to counteract Chinese influence. ‘I make special mention of the active role of the EU in a complex international scenario, and that we have the strategic autonomy to face global challenges,’ she explained.
Without ignoring the fact that there is great global instability, the Director General of the Chamber of Commerce provided this correspondent with the latest favourable data for the year 2023. Spanish exports (in terms of goods) to the USA amount to 19 billion euros and imports exceed 28 billion euros. This deficit of 9.3 billion euros is offset by exports of services worth 15.5 billion euros, while imports amounted to 7.2 billion euros.
For his part, Jon Piechowski, Public Diplomacy Counsellor at the US Embassy in Madrid, said that his country remains firmly committed to holding free and transparent elections. ‘The team here in Madrid remains apolitical, so don't expect me to give my opinion on the choice of one electoral candidate or another, even though I am aware of the great interest in Spain in who will preside over the White House’. The diplomat added that the robust measures adopted, in a cybernetic scenario, contribute to the stability of the system and guarantee the personal vote, together with the protection of each voter and the integrity of the elections. ‘We are counting on Russian attacks, the spread of fake news and covert operations that will try to destabilise democracies,’ he said.
NATO, an obsolete Alliance
Another relevant intervention was that of Natividad Fernández Sola, Professor of International Public Law and International Relations at the UCM, who believes that we find ourselves at a time when the NATO model is being questioned. Steps are being taken to question Western predominance in the face of China's peaceful rise, and this is reflected in its great economic impact. ‘Where do we place Europe and the North Atlantic Alliance in a context in which China leads in the control of energy, with 44 million tonnes of rare earths,’ asked Fernández Sola.
In this context, for the Professor of Public International Law and International Relations, it is hard to believe that, according to a cost/benefit calculation, it is not in the White House's interest to defend Europe as a priority. ‘We are talking about an ally with a very high burden and a very low need for the Alliance‘. In his own words, NATO is facing very decisive situations in a multipolar system and the original terms of NATO are changing, as not everyone has the same perception of risk.
In the same vein, General Francisco Dacoba, former Director of the Institute of Strategic Studies (IEEE) and another of the seminar's speakers, noted the enormous proliferation of simultaneous conflicts in our immediate surroundings over the past decade and their prolongation over time ‘because they are not resolved’, and expressed concern about NATO's lack of cohesion and its need to redefine itself. General Francisco Dacoba reminded the audience that the resolution of wars requires military intervention with a transversal programme of prior planning, together with an exhaustive analysis of the risks to be assumed, in order to achieve the desired final situation.
Carmen Chamorro García, Director of the CIP/ACPE and graduate in International Relations and Global Terrorism from the SEI.