This type of car could break the agreement between the EU and the US

According to the US ambassador to the EU, the rule changes may break Donald Trump’s the spirit of the trade agreement negotiated with the administration. The dispute concerns large pickup trucks manufactured by Ford Motor Company, General Motors and the Stellantis Group.

The situation threatens to overshadow the broader trade agreement reached last August. In the agreement, the United States agreed to reduce tariffs on imported European cars from 27.5 percent to 15 percent, and the EU committed to completely eliminate the 10 percent tariffs on U.S. vehicles. The EU has not yet ratified the agreement finalized last year.

Large pick-up trucks are imported into Europe under the EU Individual Approval Procedure (IVA). The procedure allows the sale of a limited number of models without the full type approval process. The European Commission is planning to reform the individual approval rules, and the final version is expected in 2027.

The US ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, stated to the Financial Times that a working relationship cannot be maintained if low tariffs are combined with massive non-tariff trade barriers. The American Automotive Policy Council, an advocacy organization for US car manufacturers, has called on the Trump administration to block the EU’s intentions to tighten type approval rules.

More unified regulation

The parties have previously agreed to prepare a framework to unify vehicle regulations. This could make it easier to import European models into the US.

European car manufacturers would probably benefit more from this, as many US models are not suitable for European roads or consumer preferences, and they do not meet the EU’s ever-tightening emission standards.

According to the environmental organization Transport & Environment, about 7,000 large American pickup trucks, such as the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 models, were sold in Europe in 2024. About 5,200 of these were Ram-branded. Environmental organizations warn that allowing the sale of large pick-up trucks in Europe increases the safety risks for pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists and enables the circumvention of emission rules.

The US and EU car markets are going strongly in different directions. The EU is hardly ready to relax the emission limits just to allow the sale of American pickup trucks in Europe, which would not necessarily sell very well in Europe.

In many southern European countries, the big Yankee flatbeds are simply too big for the local street network. In Finland, car taxation punishes open platforms so that they are unlikely to become a very big hit product. American flatbeds are mainly registered as trucks in Finland.

The European Commission, GM and Ford declined to comment to the Financial Times. Ram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: Automotive News Europe

A year of Trump’s customs war – The world’s largest car manufacturer was hit with a giant bill “We live in an unstable world” – Tariffs and China disciplined the earnings condition of the German premium brand The year 2025 was year zero for Porsche – The profit machine that cut back suffered from Trump’s tariff war and setbacks in China