US import duty on cars from the EU to be reduced retroactively

"I think this is welcome news for the automotive industry," said Sefcovic. Most recently, the tariff rate for cars imported from the EU into the USA was 27.5 percent.

Shortly before, the EU and the USA had published a joint declaration based on the trade agreements reached in Scotland by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump. It states that the USA will reduce its car tariffs retroactively from the beginning of the month as soon as the EU initiates the legislative process for import relief in favor of certain US products.

For example, tariffs on US industrial goods are to be completely abolished and barriers to the import of certain foodstuffs are to be dropped.

Following the meeting between Trump and von der Leyen on July 27, car manufacturers in the EU have so far waited in vain for the hoped-for tariff reductions, as their vehicles were initially not covered by the regulations for a new basic tariff rate of 15 percent. According to the declaration, however, this is now to be changed.

The document also contains numerous other known agreements between the EU and the USA.

Declaration is not legally binding

For example, the EU assures Trump that it will buy US energy worth 750 billion dollars by the end of his term of office. According to earlier statements by Commission President von der Leyen, liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil and nuclear fuel from the United States will fill the gaps that will arise after the planned complete renunciation of Russian gas and oil. In addition, the EU promises Trump to invest a further 600 billion US dollars in the USA in the coming years.

The joint declaration is not legally binding. The EU must fear that Trump will again unilaterally increase tariffs if agreements are not implemented. The USA did not accept the EU proposal to completely waive tariffs on industrial goods.

The EU accepted the deal because without an agreement, US tariffs of 30 percent and a real trade war would have been threatened from August 1. The member states wanted to prevent this escalation, as it would have threatened trade and jobs even more, at least in the short term.

"I want to make it clear that the alternative, a trade war with extremely high tariffs and a political escalation, helps no one," said Sefcovic at the presentation of the declaration on Thursday. This conflict would have harmed companies on both sides of the Atlantic.