President Donald Trump on Friday said he will raise tariffs on cars and auto parts from the European Union because the 27-nation bloc is not meeting its end of a trade deal reached last summer.
“I am pleased to announce that, in light of the fact that the European Union is not fully complying with our agreed-upon Trade Agreement, next week I will increase EU tariffs on cars and trucks entering the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Tax will be increased to 25%.
Tariffs on European cars and car parts are currently set at 15 percent as part of the Turnberry Plan, andEU-US agreementit happened last July at Trump’s hotel in Scotland. The deal required the EU to lower its tariffs on US industrial goods, buy $750 billion worth of energy and invest $600 billion in exchange for lower tariffs from the US.
Trump’s threat comes a week after the EU’s top trade official, Maroš Šefčovič, traveled to Washington to meet with Trump administration officials and left.sure that the planbetween the two countries remained stable.
At the time, Šefčovič said he was “assured by Ambassador (Jamieson) Greer, and all my interlocutors, that the agreement is a mutual agreement. …
The remarks came despite the existence of commercial tensions between the two partners. The EU has been frustrated by how many products are subject to US steel and aluminum tariffs, and the US has been frustrated by the EU’s pace of implementation of their July deal.
While the European Parliament passed a law in March that will reduce tariffs on US goods, the bloc still has to negotiate the deal with its key members and the European Commission.
“The behavior of President Trump is unacceptable; we in the European Union, in the European Parliament, respect the Scottish agreement. We are currently preparing the law; we have a parliamentary position and we aim to complete this in June. However, the United States has repeatedly violated the agreement, for example with more than 400 products containing steel and aluminum, which are now subject to an average tariff of 26 percent of the German Democrat,” he said. The Committee on International Trade in the European Parliament, said in a statement on Friday.
“This latest move shows how untrustworthy the US side is,” he continued. “We have already witnessed this arbitrary attack from the United States in the case of Greenland; this is not the way to deal with close allies. Now we can only respond with the utmost clarity and firmness, using the strength of our position.”
US tariffs on EU cars and auto parts were imposed under Section 232, which focuses on specific industries. That force was not affected by FebruarySupreme Court decisionoverturning some of Trump’s tariffs, which gives the administration broad flexibility to quickly adjust duties on the industry.
The car tariffs were instrumental in driving the EU to the negotiating table last summer, putting pressure on Germany’s signature car industry, including major brands such as Volkswagen, BMW and Audi.
Koen Verhelst contributed to this article.
