Radio | News week in plain Finnish | Saturday 9 November 2024

How will the US presidential elections affect Finland?

The big news of the week is that Donald Trump is the winner of the US presidential election. The news week asks how Trump’s victory will affect Finland.

Election winner Trump

There were presidential elections in the USA this week. The winner of the election is Donald Trump of the Republican Party. He defeated Democrat Kamala Harris. Trump takes office as president in January.

The President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, believes that the cooperation between Finland and the USA will continue even under Trump. Stubb says that relations between Finland and the USA are good.

Many Finns hoped that Harris would win the US elections. The reason is that Trump plans to make changes in US policy that may also affect Finland.

Trump’s economic policy

Trump plans to make changes at least in the economy.

For example, Trump plans to introduce new tariffs. Trump wants customs fees to be paid on goods when they are imported from other countries into the USA.

Trump’s goal is for Americans to buy less goods from abroad. This is how he wants to protect the USA’s own companies and jobs.

It is not yet known which goods Trump wants tariffs on. However, customs are bad news for Finnish companies, because they export the most goods to the USA. If exports from Finland to the USA decrease, jobs may even disappear from Finland.

Trump’s foreign policy

Trump can also make changes in US foreign policy.

Trump’s main theme is “America First”. International cooperation is not very important to Trump, and it can weaken the defense alliance NATO. Finland joined NATO last year.

However, Finland believes that the good cooperation with the USA will continue. In September, Finland signed an agreement with the USA on defense cooperation. The agreement means that the USA can quickly bring soldiers and weapons to Finland if Russia threatens Finland.

In addition, Finland has bought military aircraft from the USA. Finland will receive military aircraft in the next few years, and the trade connects Finland and the USA.

Repeat

This time, the news week asked how Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election will affect Finland. Let’s summarize the most important things.

Finnish companies’ exports to the USA may decrease if Trump raises customs duties.

Trump can weaken the defense alliance NATO, but the defense cooperation between Finland and the USA will continue.

This was Uutisviikko in plain Finnish, see you again. Goodbye!