As we know, US President Donald Trump likes tariffs. he is using them to get trade deals with most major countries around the globe and we know he is serious about it from the trade war that the US has opened with China. If the Chinese are afraid of tariffs and they should be considering the economic and manufacturing slowdown since the beginning of last year, then smaller countries should take tariff threats seriously.

Donald Trump threatened the EU with auto tariffs last year. It seems a bit far fetched at the beginning but it got ore serious as time went by. Actually, I was expecting tariffs on European cars to start at the beginning of this year, but Trump is taking his time, probably trying to force the EU to accept a trade deal before going into another trade battle.

EU officials have been trying to negotiate with US representatives and it seems like we are heading towards a new trade deal between the US and the Eurozone. EU’s Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom appeared earlier today saying that the EU nations are tilting toward approving a US/EU trade deal.

EU and Malmstrom has replied earlier that the the EU would retaliate with more tariffs if the US pushes tariffs on European cars, which would mostly target German cars and she repeated it again today. But, from the likes of it, chances are that officials from the two large economies will reach an agreement at some time. There is a little concession and desire to cooperate from the EU which is not surprising given the economic weakness of the Eurozone recently. Auto tariffs would make things much worse for the manufacturing sector which is in contraction in several EU countries.