yes,

thank you very much for taking the question.

actually,

it's 2 questions on trade.

one is about,

Commissioner Šefčovič trip to Washington.

who exactly,

because yesterday,

you,

didn't have the exact schedule ready yet,

so who exactly will you be meeting

and what will be his message?

The first question.

The second one,

is,

I just read your Q&A,

but,

maybe you can elaborate further on

how does the commission deal with the fact that

President Trump is going to regard the value added tax

as well as France's digital taxes as uh tariffs.

And since the US administration,

will,

of course,

will be looking at this on a country by country basis,

there's a risk that

uh Trump will try to negotiate with EU member states

individually and how is the commission going to react to,

to that.

Thank you.

Thank you for your questions.

So on Commissioner Šefčovič agenda,

I think the most important meeting I can confirm is that tomorrow,

Wednesday afternoon,

Eastern Time US,

he will participate in a joint meeting with Kevin Hassett.

The director of the National Economic Council,

Secretary of Commerce designate Lutnick and

uh USTR designate Greer,

and he will also participate in a,

in

an event that's organized by an

A think tank whose name currently escapes me,

but I'll be happy to provide to you

afterwards.

And on your second

question,

So

the first thing to keep in mind here is that

We don't have

a prescriptive.

Sort of description

of what

their reciprocal.

Tariffs or the approach to reciprocal tariffs,

let's say that President Trump has announced,

we don't have that yet,

so we can't

describe to you what our response is going to be

other than to repeat

what we have said repeatedly from this podium,

which is that

we are prepared for all outcomes.

We have been preparing for more than a year.

We're engaging

with our American interlocutors,

as evidenced by the meeting I just mentioned

with Commissioner Šefčovič in DC tomorrow.

And

while we are committed to finding win-win solutions,

mutually beneficial outcomes with our American

friends,

we're also prepared to defend our legitimate interests as necessary,

and I would invite you all to look at the

questions and answers we just published on our press corner

where we go through.

Some of the

issues that have been

discussed and outlined in recent weeks,

including the fact that

value added tax,

VAT

is not a tariff,

so this is not something that has ever been

within the scope of trade policy before,

and we will certainly be insisting on that

fact in our talks with our American counterparts.

I hope that gives you some.

some initial answer to your questions,

and we can't provide more details at this stage.

Thank you,

Olof.

any other questions for Olof?

Well,

we go to Bina.

so is there,

no,

sorry,

there's a follow-up,

excuse me.

You,

we go back to you,

sorry.

Thank you very much.

Just,

uh,

briefly,

um,

thanks for confirming the high-level

meeting of Commissioner Šefčovič tomorrow.

what,

what exactly will be his messaging,

when you go further than,

than what you have,

have published?

Maybe you can,

you can,

um,

guide us through,

through the,

the exact messaging he's,

he's gonna provide.

Nice try,

Jan.

I certainly can't provide you with a more detailed list of the

messaging he's going to convey other than to repeat what I just said

that

you know,

he goes in peace,

he's going there to try and find

solutions that work for both sides

in the.

Representing in a very forthright way,

the European Union's

principled belief that tariffs serve no one

and that they drive us towards lose-lose outcomes,

whereas what we want to achieve

with our

American partners is.

Win-win outcomes

defending and enhancing the most valuable trade

and investment partnership in the world.

That's all I can say for now.

I'm sure we can provide a read out of the meeting after it has taken place tomorrow,

so keep in touch,

please.

Thank you very much.

Uh,

thank you for uh the second opportunity.

I,

I also have a question about the value added tax.

I also read the um Q&A,

but,

I just want clarification if I'm

understanding correctly,

that the EU VAT should be set at a minimum of 15%

and,

and there's no maximum rate on this,

and if you have any figures of what the actual rate among EU is,

that would be uh very informative.

Thank you.

you may have noticed in the Q&A that we included a link

where the EU value added tax system

is described in glorious bureaucratic detail,

so I would invite you to please look at that in the first instance,

and if you still have any follow on questions,

come back to me and my colleague Anna-Kaisa,

and one of us will respond in due course.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions for Olof?

No

any other questions for us today?

Yes,