EU threatens $294B in retaliatory tariffs if Trump imposes foreign car levies

The European Union threatened retaliatory tariffs on $294 billion of U.S. exports if the U.S. imposes tariffs on cars and car parts from the EU, Reuters reported.

The EU sent a submission to the U.S. Commerce Department on Friday claiming tariffs on EU automobiles could increase costs for manufacturers in the U.S.

The submission comes as the Commerce Department investigates automobile imports to the U.S.

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The EU submission also reports a 25 percent tariff could have a $13–14 billion negative impact on U.S. gross domestic product, Reuters reported.

According to the report, the EU exported $43.6 billion worth of cars to the U.S. last year, while approximately $7.2 billion worth of cars went from the U.S. to the European bloc.

Trump has slapped billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs on a number of countries in recent weeks, including tariffs on steel and aluminum from the EU.

He said in an interview on Sunday that the European Union “is possibly as bad as China, just smaller” when it comes to trade practices.

“It’s terrible what they do to us,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “Take a look at the car situation. They send their Mercedes in, we can’t send our cars in.”

Trump last month tweeted the U.S. will place a 20 percent tariff on EU cars coming to the U.S. “if [EU] Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed.”

Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. & its great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2018

“Cars is a big deal. This is a much bigger deal than steel,” David Henig, a former trade negotiator who worked on trade talks with the U.S., told CNN.