Spain’s economy minister says US trade ties should remain separate from disagreement on Iran

Spain’s trade relations with the US should remain separate from the two countries’ disagreement over the war in Iran, Spain’s Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Thursday.

“The decision was very clear since the beginning that we did not want to participate in this unilateral war outside international law,” he said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC. “This is a very, or a completely, different discussion than the economic bilateral relationships that we have with the US.”

Cuerpo was responding to a question about US President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off trade with Spain over the country’s refusal to allow its bases to be used in the war against Iran. Despite the disagreement, Cuerpo said, Spain’s relationship with the US is one “that we treasure and that we want to protect.”

Cuerpo said Spain, the EU’s fourth-largest economy, is prepared to answer Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for “middle powers” to unite in the face of global fragmentation spurred by Trump’s trade wars.

“We have to work on that agenda,” he said.

Trade between Canada and Spain should be much bigger given the size of the two economies, Cuerpo said. “We’ve somehow underestimated the potential that is there.”