Catherine Field: Europe Correspondent on the European Union's preparations for the US Election

Plans are being put in place across Europe for the possibility of Donald Trump winning the US election. 

Europe Correspondent Catherine Field says the European Union has already set up a special taskforce prepared for next week's election. 

She told Mike Hosking the officials have concern over the former president's potential policies, including pulling out of supporting Ukraine. 

Field says they also fear across the board trade tariffs of up to 20% on all European goods going into the US. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Plans to go kes from field. Very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The Georgia election interesting. So pro Russia, b PO, pro EU.
It looks like Russia wins.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
It does look a bit like that, although there are
allegations coming from election observers of ballot box stuffing, of intimidation,
coercion among voters. I mean, as I'm speaking to Mike,
seeing pictures coming home of a big demonstration in the
center of the capital Tbilis, tens of thousands coming out

(00:30):
onto the streets. They've been called up there by the president,
Salame Zerahbashpheeley, who alleges there were irregularities in the vote.
She actually has come out and said that this was
what she described as a Russian special operation.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
They say that in.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Fact, the ruling party, the Georgian Dream, that Pro Russia party,
won only forty percent of the votes.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
So it's a real worry.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Actually for that region because when you look at that region, Mike,
you've got so many tensions there.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
You've got Georgia itself.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
You know, it's split between Russia, Iran, Turkey, all of
them claiming a bit of it. We saw back in
what twenty eight Russia invaded parts.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Of Georgia, which I said, we had a.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Big Russian minority living there. There are still UN and
EU observers that station there to try and stop more
conflict happening there. So it's a real concern that yet
again you're seeing on Europe's eastern flank pro Russian parties,
oligarchs taking power, and question marks over exactly whether or

(01:37):
not these were free or fair elections exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
So the next question is is anyone actually apart from
the people on the street, going to do anything about it?
And then you come to another election, which is in America,
and of a certain bloke who was standing in Medicine
Square Garden yesterday wins. The implications for the EU, I
would have thought are enormous.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh, just absolutely enormous.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I mean they have started thinking about this, what about
three years ago when former President Donald Trump said that
he was going to have another shot at getting back
into the White House. What they're looking at is you're
actually operating on what he has said rather than what
he might do. So what the EU had done already,
that's set up a special task force. They're calling it

(02:17):
a rapid reaction force that will hit the ground as
soon as the winner is announced. They do not expect
any changes to wait until.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Inauguration next year.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
They're expecting that if Trump wins, these changes will happen
very quickly, so they've.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Set up this task force.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
We're already seeing ambassadors, we're seeing people from various countries
coming to Brussels to talk about what could happen. So
essentially they're saying that they know that Trump will not
defend NATO, particularly what he described as delinquent NATO allies,
that is, those that don't pay enough into their coffers
to pay for their defense. They're also expecting if he

(02:57):
does come to power, that there will be immediate across
the world tariffs of between ten and twenty percent on imports.
So that's what they're looking at. They're also having a
very close look at Trump's entourage who would come in,
what his policies would be on on defense.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Also a lot you know, you're also seeing here in France.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
The French Foreign Ministry has set up a special task
force to look at this as well, because I think
one of their concerns is Mike, that Trump will exploit
internal EU divisions, perhaps start picking off certain countries because
they know he does prefer bilateral relations rather than relations
with these big groupings such as the European Union.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Grant insight. Well done, Catherine Ketch up next Tuesday. Appreciate
it very much. What you can say about Trump that's irrefutable,
of course, is that when he first became president, there
were a lot of countries with a NATO that weren't
paying their way. America pays over three percent of GDP,
whereas much of the countries didn't play the two percent
they said they would pay. And now if you look
at the number of countries paying the two percent plus

(03:56):
as a direct result of his basically pointing the finger
and say pull it out and get on with it,
he can climb the victory in that department. I would
have thought for more from the mic asking Breakfast, listen
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