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CARS

German carmakers to hold talks with Trump over tariffs

German carmakers are to meet with top US officials at the White House on Tuesday, sources said, as US President Donald Trump mulls damaging tariff hikes on vehicles imported from the European Union.

Published: 3 December 2018 08:36 CET
German carmakers to hold talks with Trump over tariffs
U.S President Donald Trump. Photo: DPA

German news agency DPA reported Sunday that top executives from Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW will hold talks with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, citing a source close to the matter.

When contacted by AFP there was no immediate comment from the three German auto titans. But a reliable source confirmed the high-level meeting “is scheduled to take place on Tuesday”.

According to DPA, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess and Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche are expected to take part in the White House talks, but BMW chief Harald Krueger's presence remained unclear.

German carmakers are hoping to convince Trump not to go through with threatened duties of up to 25 percent on imported cars, which would badly hurt US sales at a time when the Chinese market is already cooling.

Trump agreed with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in July to hold off from imposing new tariffs while negotiations are ongoing.

But as recently as last week the US leader indicated he was still in favour of using tariffs to protect the American auto industry.

The US Commerce Department is currently finalizing its recommendations on the potential tariffs.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom warned last Wednesday that any US tariffs on autos would meet with immediate retaliation.

Trump has in the past repeatedly taken aim at German car brands in his criticism of the country's “very unfair” trade imbalance with the United States.

He once complained that there were too many Mercedes in New York City, to which Germany's then economy minister retorted that Americans should “build better cars”.

Germany's export-reliant car industry is already feeling the sting from Trump's trade row with Beijing that has seen both sides impose duties on goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

But in some relief to German carmakers, who have factories in both the US and China, Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping announced a ceasefire in their tariffs war after meeting at the G20 this weekend.

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FARMING

WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules

A US decision to slap steep import duties on Spanish olives over claims they benefited from subsidies constituted a violation of international trade rules, the World Trade Organisation ruled Friday.

Published: 22 November 2021 11:34 CET
WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules
Farmers had just begun harvesting olives in southern Spain when former US President Donald Trump soured the mood with the tariffs' announcement. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration slapped extra tariffs on Spain’s iconic agricultural export in 2018, considering their olives were subsidised and being dumped on the US market at prices below their real value.

The combined rates of the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties go as high as 44 percent.

The European Commission, which handles trade policy for the 27 EU states, said the move was unacceptable and turned to the WTO, where a panel of experts was appointed to examine the case.

In Friday’s ruling, the WTO panel agreed with the EU’s argument that the anti-subsidy duties were illegal.

But it did not support its stance that the US anti-dumping duties violated international trade rules.

The panel said it “recommended that the United States bring its measures into conformity with its obligations”.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis hailed the ruling, pointing out that the US duties “severely hit Spanish olive producers.”

Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid, called by the olive sector
Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid called by the olive sector to denounce low prices of olive oil and the 25 percent tariff that Spanish olives and olive oil faced in the United States. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
 

“We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions,” he said.

The European Commission charges that Spain’s exports of ripe olives to the United States, which previously raked in €67 million ($75.6 million) annually, have shrunk by nearly 60 percent since the duties were imposed.

The office of the US Trade Representative in Washington did not immediately comment on the ruling.

According to WTO rules, the parties have 60 days to file for an appeal.

If the United States does file an appeal though, it would basically amount to a veto of the ruling.

That is because the WTO Appellate Body — also known as the supreme court of world trade — stopped functioning in late 2019 after Washington blocked the appointment of new judges.

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