The European Union and Greece were not prepared for the developments after US President Donald Trump's decision to increase tariffs, whereas they should have been, based on the experience during Trump's first four years in office, main opposition PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis pointed out on Monday, during his meeting with the president of the Greek Exporters' Association, Simeon Diamantidis. According to Androulakis, what we are now seeing "is a broken telephone between European countries".
The meeting focused on the problems that exporters are facing in view of the global trade war.
Androulakis stressed that PASOK is in favour of dialogue and consensus at a European level, so that there is the necessary protection for the Greek and European economy. "Unfortunately, we are facing a trade war whose impacts we cannot yet calculate," he said.
He noted that "in order to protect Greek interests, there must be a healthy economy, and a healthy economy cannot exist without strong competition, without strong export power, but with deficits and a very large percentage of imports, which show that, unfortunately, we have taken steps but not enough to be a resilient economy in the face of these developments and the challenges that exist."
"We are not prepared, while we knew since 2008, since Trump's first four-year term, what could happen if we had another four-year term," he said and continued: "So, the European Union and our country should have been prepared based on the experience at that time, and today we see a broken telephone between European states, which is essentially at odds with what the European Commission is proposing."
He added that "the answer cannot be to preserve only the strong industrial productive forces of northern and central Europe. Because this is what we see today being imposed or adopted, which for me is wrong. We must find the golden mean. Because otherwise we will have a plurality on the part of the EU which the US will ultimately exploit to the detriment of the countries. That is why we prioritise dialogue and consensus at the European level, so that we can resist this unprecedented situation, which will certainly harm international trade, will certainly create new realities in the European Union, and we are certainly not prepared."
 Diamantidis informed PASOK's leader that the Greek exports doubled between 2010 and 2024, despite the economic crisis, wars and the pandemic. He noted that every four-point increase in exports means an increase in GDP by one point, meaning an additional 2.4 billion euros for the government to reduce taxes and help those in need without borrowing.
Eighty percent of Greek exports are currently made by large businesses and the goal is for exports to reach 60% of GDP or 120 billion euros by 2028.