EU has €35b list if US hits its cars: trade chief

Trump said earlier some imported vehicles and parts posed national security threat

BRUSSELS: The European Union will retaliate with extra duties on €35 billion ($39.1 billion) worth of US goods if Washington imposes punitive tariffs on EU cars, the bloc’s trade chief said on Tuesday.

“We will not accept any managed trade, quotas or voluntary export restraints and, if there were to be tariffs, we would have a rebalancing list,” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told a committee of the European Parliament.

“It is already basically prepared, worth €35 billion. I do hope we do not have to use that one,” she continued.

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US President Donald Trump declared in May that some imported vehicles and parts pose a national security threat. But he delayed for six months a decision on whether to impose tariffs to allow time for trade talks with the EU and Japan. That six months ends in mid-November.

“We welcome the decision by the US not to impose duties on cars and car parts, but of course the very notion that European cars can be a national security threat to the US is absurd,” Malmstrom said.

There had been progress on a deal to make it easier for companies to show their products meet the standards of the EU or US market, but none on a proposed deal to remove tariffs on industrial goods.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2019.

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