President Trump said Wednesday that the decision whether to impose automobile and auto parts tariffs on the European Union would be based on whether the EU agreed to a deal, rather than on a long-awaited Commerce Department report on the subject.
“It is something we certainly think about. We are trying to make a deal. They are very tough to make a deal with, the EU. They’ve been very difficult,” Trump told reporters when asked if tariffs were coming. “We are negotiating with them. If we do not make a deal, we’ll do the tariffs.”
Asked if the report the Commerce Department delivered to the White House Sunday on the potential need for tariffs would determine the policy, the president said it wouldn’t. “The new report is not that kind of report. It’s just really a study that is underway. We’ve studied it very carefully. We’ve seen the results,” he said. “But the bottomline result is whether we can make a deal with the EU that is fair.”
Trump has long threatened to slap 25 percent tariffs on autos and auto parts. A Commerce Department report prepared last year was widely assumed to give the administration a rationale to impose one under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows the administration to impose tariffs on the basis of national security. The report was put on hold after E.U. officials agreed to new talks, but was finally officially delivered to the White House on Sunday.
On Monday, European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told German media that President Trump had promised that he wouldn’t impose tariffs on autos and auto parts imports “for the time being.”
The president has 90 days to make a decision based on the report’s findings, which have been kept closely under wraps by the administration. Democrats and nonprofit watchdog groups have called on the White to make the reports details public.
