La Jornada: Trump will increase tariffs on EU cars to 25%

Washington. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced yesterday that he will increase tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union up to 25 percent, after ensuring that the EU had not complied with a trade agreement.

“Next week I will increase the tariffs charged for cars and trucks entering the United States,” he wrote on social networks.

“It is fully understood and agreed that if they manufacture cars and trucks in plants in the United States there will be no tariffs,” he added.

Trump told reporters at the White House that increasing tariffs would force European automakers to move production to the United States more quickly.

“We have a trade agreement with the European Union. They were not honoring it. So I raised the tariffs on cars and trucks to 25 percent, which means billions of dollars coming into the United States, and forcing them to move their industrial production much faster.”

Last year, the Republican administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on auto imports under a national security trade law, but in August reached a deal with the EU to reduce them to a net 15 percent.

In exchange, the EU agreed to eliminate tariffs on American industrial products, including cars, and accept U.S. safety and emissions standards for vehicles.

Although EU lawmakers presented a rule to implement the tariff reductions in March, the process is not expected to be completed before June, as EU governments and the European Parliament are negotiating the final texts.

“President Trump’s behavior is unacceptable,” said Bernd Lange, president of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee. “This measure shows how unreliable the US side is. This is no way to treat close partners,” he reproached.