{"id":273802,"date":"2025-11-05T21:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/273802\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:32:07","slug":"eu-ambassador-visits-florida-to-strengthen-trade-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/273802\/","title":{"rendered":"EU ambassador visits Florida to strengthen trade relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; The European Union Ambassador to the United States spent the week meeting with Florida state and local leaders to strengthen relationships and better understand how state policy influences global policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">EU Ambassador <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeas.europa.eu\/united-states-america\/about-ambassador_en?s=253\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.eeas.europa.eu\/united-states-america\/about-ambassador_en?s=253\">Jovita Neliup\u0161ien\u0117<\/a> and diplomats from 10 other countries visited the Capitol on Wednesday to meet with state leaders and discuss partnerships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cA lot of Florida people are right now in government, in the administration, it\u2019s a question of understanding politically what is happening and why,\u201d Neliup\u0161ien\u0117 said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The ambassador said the exchange of ideas and information is important for the EU\u2019s understanding of American policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Many federal policies around trade have been controversial. In July, the Trump administration reached a deal with the EU that includes a 15% tariff on many goods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cTariffs were never an option for us. We don\u2019t believe as Europeans or as the European Union that tariffs are the silver bullet to solve all the problems,\u201d Neliup\u0161ien\u0117 said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-center article-text\">More Florida politics:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Nearly $9 billion worth of goods are <a href=\"https:\/\/trade.ec.europa.eu\/eu-footprint-us\/state\/FL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/trade.ec.europa.eu\/eu-footprint-us\/state\/FL\">exported from Florida<\/a> to Europe. House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said she hopes this week\u2019s visit will expand that trade despite the tariffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cFlorida is open for business. We want to see better high-paying jobs here in our state,\u201d Driskell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The EU Ambassador said she expects economic growth will continue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cYou have the fastest-growing economy, and that makes all the people interested,\u201d Neliup\u0161ien\u0117 said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Florida is now the 15th largest economy in the world, if it were a country, with a gross domestic product exceeding $1.7 trillion, according to Sheridan Morby, Senior Research Economist with the Florida Chamber Foundation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cInternational partnerships play a vital role in this growth,\u201d Morby said. \u201cEuropean visitors, foreign direct investment, exports, and more, fuel this momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This was the first time European diplomats visited Florida. The ambassador said they try to visit at least one state a year to get an understanding that they cannot get in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) &#8211; The European Union Ambassador to the United States spent the week&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,28,68617,101,18758,146112,1076,5335,146113,2808,146114,146115,1922,2420,2091,3,1343,70713,759,447,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-273802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-business","tag-cody-butler","tag-economy","tag-eu","tag-eu-ambassador-florida","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-european-union-trade-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-europe-exports","tag-florida-international-trade","tag-foreign-policy","tag-government","tag-international","tag-news","tag-policy","tag-relations","tag-tariffs","tag-trade","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}