European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said that President Trump promised that he wouldn’t impose tariffs on autos and auto parts imports from the EU for the time being.
“Trump gave me his word that there would be no tariffs for the time being,” Juncker told the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten papers on Monday, according to a Reuters translation. Juncker did not indicate when Trump made the promise, but said: “I believe this pledge to be reliable.”
Trump, on Sunday, received a Commerce Department report widely assumed to justify applying auto tariffs.
The agency’s report involves Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows the White House to impose tariffs on the basis of national security. Trump has interpreted that authority broadly to justify imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and has threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on auto and auto parts imports. What the report recommends has not been divulged by the White House, and stakeholder groups, including top trade associations and labor organizations, have told the Washington Examiner they have been kept in the dark.
The report was originally meant to be released last year, but the administration held off after it began preliminary talks last year with EU officials on a potential new trade deal. Full negotiations have not been formally scheduled and the lead-up to them has been rocky. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has repeatedly told reporters that they will not consent to putting agricultural subsidies on the table, a key issue the administration is pursuing.
