EU Says It’ll Respond Swiftly To Any Trump-Imposed Auto Tariffs

The European Union says it will respond to any tariffs U.S President Donald Trump may slap on vehicles built in the Old Continent.

On Friday, Trump threatened to import a 20 per cent tariff on all cars assembled in the EU and imported to the United States.

Speaking to French newspaper La Monde, EU Commission vice president Jyrki Katainen said the EU is ready to act accordingly.

“If they decide to raise their import tariffs, we’ll have no choice, again, but to react. We don’t want to fight (over trade) in public via Twitter. We should end the escalation,” he said.

Trump’s tariff threats come a month after he ordered the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate if imported cars pose a national security threat. The department has a deadline of February 2019 to make a determination about the national security risk of such vehicles, Reuters reports.

The United States currently imposes a 25 per cent tariff on imported pickup trucks and a 2.5 per cent tariff on imported passenger cars. By comparison, the EU imposes a 10 per cent tariff on cars imported from the United States.

Taking to Twitter recently, Trump doubled-down on his tariff threats.

“If these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!” he wrote.

For the moment, the two parties are involved in a war of words. It remains to be seen if Trump goes ahead with his threats – and if the EU responds, things might get ugly.