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The US and EU have mentioned a possible deal to chop and in the end scrap tariffs on automotive imports as Brussels scrambles to keep away from changing into embroiled in Donald Trump’s escalating international commerce battle.
EU officers insisted there was “positive momentum” in the direction of a compromise between the 2 sides following talks in Washington this week in search of to “avoid unnecessary pain” and avert tariffs threatened by the US president.
“The priority, which was highlighted several times in our conversation, was to work on cars — how to lower the tariffs, eventually even eliminate them,” Europe’s commerce commissioner Maroš Šefčovič instructed reporters on Thursday.
“They’re very open to discuss everything which concerns lowering the tariffs, because we are probably the most open economy in the world,” he added. “Our number one priority is to avoid this period of pain.”
Since taking workplace Trump has sought to revamp the US’s buying and selling relationship with the world. He has hit Chinese language items with a further 10 per cent levy and plans to impose a 25 per cent tariff on metal and aluminium imports from subsequent month.
He additionally plans to introduce “reciprocal” tariffs on a country-by nation foundation, which might hit Europe laborious, and is weighing sector-focused levies on industries together with automotive, pharma and semiconductors.
Trump has singled out the EU for explicit criticism, lashing out on the scale of the commerce deficit and what he sees as discriminatory remedy for US imports, particularly within the automotive sector. The EU fees a ten per cent levy on vehicles in contrast with the two.5 per cent US degree.
“The EU has been very unfair to us,” he stated this week. “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farmed products, they don’t take almost anything . . . And we’re going to have to straighten that out.”
Šefčovič on Wednesday held 4 hours of talks with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, US commerce consultant nominee Jamieson Greer and Nationwide Financial Council director Kevin Hassett.
The EU commerce chief requested Washington to delay any new levies whereas a deal was thrashed out, a request he stated was “positively perceived”.
However the Slovak made clear that any deal on automotive tariffs must account for the 25 per cent charge levied by the US on mild truck imports, together with pick-ups. “The US is protecting the pick-up . . . so I think that if you are looking for reciprocity, it must work for both,” he stated.
Brussels has already promised “firm and proportionate” retaliation if Trump imposes tariffs on metal and aluminium on March 12 as deliberate. However Šefčovič was reluctant to develop on how the EU response would play out.
He stated the delegations had mentioned narrowing the commerce deficit “relatively quickly” by growing EU imports of liquefied pure gasoline and soyabeans. “We need more LNG . . . because we are phasing out the Russian gas. So this is clearly . . . the area where we can do a lot together.”
The fee declined to touch upon one other central US demand of accepting extra shellfish. The EU has spent three years reviewing whether or not three US states — Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island — needs to be allowed to affix the one different two — Massachusetts and Washington — capable of export oysters and mussels to the bloc.
The White Home stated final month that it might use tariffs to deal with the imbalance within the shellfish commerce. In 2023 the US imported shellfish value $274mn from the EU however exported solely $38mn of the product.
