NATO Secretary General is convinced that new US tariffs do not violate Alliance obligations

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is convinced that new US tariffs, particularly against Alliance member countries, do not violate NATO obligations.

He stated this on April 4 at a press conference after the meeting of foreign ministers of NATO member countries, reports a Babel correspondent.

We are talking about Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty

. It states that the Alliance states "shall endeavor to eliminate contradictions in their foreign economic policies and shall promote economic cooperation between individual or all of the Parties to the Treaty".

"When it comes to Article 2, I do not believe that this [imposing tariffs on products imported into the US] is a violation of this article," Rutte said.

The NATO Secretary General added that there have been tariff disputes between NATO member states before, and this was also not considered a violation of Article 2 of the North Atlantic Treaty. At the same time, he added that governments will have to react and make a choice between which needs to cover.

• On April 2, the US President Donald Trump reported that he was imposing tariffs on goods from other countries. His tariffs affected more than 180 countries and territories (except Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Belarus, which are already under sanctions). The tariffs also affected US NATO allies and the European Union. A 10% tariff was imposed on Ukraine.

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