Lithuania to use state, EU funds to help businesses after US tariffs - minister

VILNIUS - State and EU funds will be used to finance a 20 million euro aid package to mitigate the impact of US tariffs on businesses, Economy and Innovation Minister Lukas Savickas says.

"We will have several areas, and part of it will come from the state budget and part from EU funds. There will be an opportunity for both businesses and business associations to use these funds to find new markets," Savickas told reporters on Friday.

On Thursday, the ministry unveiled a business assistance plan, primarily aimed at helping businesses diversify their markets. And on Friday, Savickas discussed the planned measures with business representatives.

"The priority today is, of course, to help businesses to adapt and find new markets, to keep the existing ones, and that is what our action plan is all about," the minister said.

According to Vidmantas Janulevicius, head of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, businesses will have to look for markets the EU has free trade agreements with, for example, Canada and Japan.

"They are not very cheap. And I see an opportunity for us to supply them with our products if, let's say, we still fail to reduce those tariffs. But nobody is saying that we are abandoning America," Janulevicius told reporters.

In his words, businesses would also benefit from soft loans similar to the ones the state offered during China's economic pressure after a Taiwanese representative office was opened in Vilnius in 2021.

The measures could require less than 20 million euros, Savickas said.

For the time being, the minister said, the ministry will prioritize businesses exporting directly to the US

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said the EU will be slammed with 20 percent tariffs.

The Economy and Innovation Ministry estimates that such an aggressive trade policy would have negative impact on Lithuania's GDP growth of 0.65 percentage points over the next three to four years.

Lithuania's direct exports to the US account for about 6.8 percent of total exports of goods of Lithuanian origin and were valued at 1.6 billion euros last year.

BNS earlier cited the central Bank of Lithuania as saying that a possible trade war between the US and the European Union would reduce Lithuania's economic growth by 0.33-1.3 percentage points over the next four years.