AFP, Washington :
US President Donald Trump has singled out Europe in a billowing trade row, threatening to tax German cars if the European Union doesn’t lower barriers to US products.
His threat, issued amid a roiling dispute over Trump’s announcement of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from nearly every country, came in a campaign rally late Saturday in Pennsylvania.
He told a boisterous crowd that if Europe did not lower trade barriers to US imports, “we’re gonna tax Mercedes-Benz, we’re gonna tax BMW.”
While it was not entirely clear whether the threat reflected actual US policy or merely an effort by the president to play to an appreciative crowd, he had used similar language earlier on Twitter.
“The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the US very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum,” Trump tweeted. “If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on US products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!”
The announcement of duties of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum has stung the EU and other major partners, coming as a surprise to allied countries and even, reportedly, to some close presidential advisers.
But the deputy White House spokesman, Raj Shah, said Sunday that no one should have been surprised.
Asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, was among those caught off guard, Shah demurred.
“I’m not going to get into specifics,” he said. “But it’s consistent with what the president said not just during the campaign, but for decades.”
Failing to include the national security adviser in talks on tariffs would seem highly unusual, given Trump’s argument that weakened US steel and aluminum industries would threaten national security.
In his speech Saturday in Pennsylvania-historically a major steel-producing state, but which has lost thousands of jobs to mechanization and foreign competition-Trump said that EU countries “kill us on trade.
US President Donald Trump has singled out Europe in a billowing trade row, threatening to tax German cars if the European Union doesn’t lower barriers to US products.
His threat, issued amid a roiling dispute over Trump’s announcement of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from nearly every country, came in a campaign rally late Saturday in Pennsylvania.
He told a boisterous crowd that if Europe did not lower trade barriers to US imports, “we’re gonna tax Mercedes-Benz, we’re gonna tax BMW.”
While it was not entirely clear whether the threat reflected actual US policy or merely an effort by the president to play to an appreciative crowd, he had used similar language earlier on Twitter.
“The European Union, wonderful countries who treat the US very badly on trade, are complaining about the tariffs on Steel & Aluminum,” Trump tweeted. “If they drop their horrific barriers & tariffs on US products going in, we will likewise drop ours. Big Deficit. If not, we Tax Cars etc. FAIR!”
The announcement of duties of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum has stung the EU and other major partners, coming as a surprise to allied countries and even, reportedly, to some close presidential advisers.
But the deputy White House spokesman, Raj Shah, said Sunday that no one should have been surprised.
Asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, was among those caught off guard, Shah demurred.
“I’m not going to get into specifics,” he said. “But it’s consistent with what the president said not just during the campaign, but for decades.”
Failing to include the national security adviser in talks on tariffs would seem highly unusual, given Trump’s argument that weakened US steel and aluminum industries would threaten national security.
In his speech Saturday in Pennsylvania-historically a major steel-producing state, but which has lost thousands of jobs to mechanization and foreign competition-Trump said that EU countries “kill us on trade.
