Posted on 07/01/2018 2:57:55 PM PDT by Olog-hai
US president Donald Trump’s threat to hit car imports with punitive tariffs risks sparking global retaliation against as much as $300 billion of US products, Brussels has warned.
The warning is the first time that the European Commission, in a written submission to the US Department of Commerce seen by the Financial Times, has set out a detailed response to Mr. Trump’s threat to slam punitive tariffs on imported vehicles, with EU capitals increasingly convinced that the unpredictable US president will act soon.
Mr. Trump on Sunday said that the EU was “as bad” as China when it came to the way European countries traded with the US. In an interview with Fox News, he dismissed suggestions that his attacks on the EU were counterproductive and that he should instead strengthen relations with European countries to tackle the Chinese trade issue together.
“The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller … It is terrible what they do to us,” Mr. Trump said, citing “the car situation”.
Brussels said that an American investigation into whether foreign cars and parts posed a national security risk could plunge the global economy into a full-on trade war, harming employment in the US car sector, which accounts for more than four million jobs. …
(Excerpt) Read more at irishtimes.com ...
Nuts!
We span a continent with virtually endless resources and a free market work ethic. I bet the US can beat the EU in this game.
Get lost.
Fine, we will see that and raise you $1 Trillion!
It will hurt them a lot more since we don’t sell chit in europe compar d to what they sell us. I’m done with European products myself including cars
Maybe we could recover our losses by pulling our military and support out of Western Europe.
These tariffs will go away when the deal is done. They are compensating for the tariffs that Euro countries have put on American cars and products since the War.
Japanese any day over Eurojunk.
It will not cost the U.S. It is a tax on your own people. And since most of what they chose were products that there are no easy alternatives, they will mostly have to suck it up. The reason for those products? They already keep almost anything that competes with their products out with existing tariffs. Will our net sales of those products go down. Probably a little but not that much.
Why? Simple...because Europe has a multi billion dollar surplus with us.
We really do not need for Germany to decide it has to have a real military. That is the main reason we have been the defense of Europe with our troops and installations there. Germany has a history, three times in 70 years.
They sure like to talk a lot.
Bring it, Euroweenies. There isn’t a single product made in Europe that I want or need.
I bet the US can beat the EU in this game.
*************
Whose money are you betting? That of US consumers? That of businesses and workers who suffer from retaliatory taxes on US goods? Trade wars have consequences for all sides. The USA can’t fight the whole world.
This should be highly amusing. Lots of governments around the world have been engaging in stupid, expensive domestic policies based on having a huge trade imbalance with the US, which in effect subsidizes their stupidity.
President Trump turning off this free money faucet should have a very therapeutic effect in the mid term, after these government either reform or go bankrupt. And given the EU’s absolute rejection of reform and moderation, we can enjoy our popcorn while watching them implode.
“It is terrible what they do to us,” Mr. Trump said, citing “the car situation”.”
Yes, what will the Krauts do when they can’t sell their overpriced Nazi Thunderbirds here? They send the high-value components for the cars they assemble here from Krautersberg. Just put a big tariff on those pieces, and the German car business is done here. The EU needs to pull out their pants and take a look down where their balls should be, and they will see that they are missing! Any “trade war” will be over before it’s started and they know it. It’s just that they’ve found in the past that they can just stamp their feet and our government would roll over. Not any more!
Precisely!
Yes and now Chamberlain has weighed in.
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