The chief of Europe’s biggest port sees potential US tariffs on energy commodities like oil and gas as a bigger risk to the facility’s trade with the country compared to other sectors.
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“The vast majority of our trade with the US is in the energy sector,” Boudewijn Siemons, chief executive officer of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, said in an interview. Energy trade constitutes roughly three-quarters of the port’s imports from the US and a third of exports in 2024.
“I don’t know if the US will introduce energy tariffs, since it’s so unpredictable,” he added. Siemons also called them “illogical” given the large trade surplus the US has with the Netherlands, which is boosted by the energy transiting through Rotterdam.
President Donald Trump threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on its global trading partners, setting a deadline of early April for his team to come up with a proposal, but the details remain unclear.
Siemons said the Netherlands is unlikely to be exempted from any action taken against the European Union as a whole. “Our positive trade balance does not take away the overall EU trade deficit with the US,” he said.
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The Rotterdam port imported 44.5 million metric tons from the US in 2024, compared to just 7.5 million tons of exports