A top European Union diplomat after meeting with senior U.S. officials to discuss a deal to cut and potentially abolish U.S. tariffs on car imports from Europe said the United States showed willingness to compromise.
European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič stressed the importance of active engagement and fairness in trade during a four-hour meeting with Trump officials in Washington.
“The top objective as it was presented to us yesterday by our American partners is reciprocity,” Šefčovič told reporters at a Thursday briefing.
“The priority, which was highlighted several times in our conversation, was to work on cars—how to lower the tariffs, eventually even eliminate them.
“They’re very open to discuss everything which concerns lowering the tariffs, because we are probably the most open economy in the world. Our number one priority is to avoid this period of pain.”
Šefčovič, a native of Slovakia, on Wednesday met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, and Jamieson Greer, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. trade representative.
Trump’s America First approach has rattled the longstanding transatlantic partnership between the United States and Europe. The U.S. president pledged to levy higher taxes on imports from the continent to match the tariffs on products entering the EU from America.
However, his plan for tariffs would also include Europe’s value-added tax (VAT), which could drastically push up import taxes and potentially trigger a broader trade conflict between Brussels and Washington.
Šefčovič said he tried in his conversation with White House officials to equate VAT with a sales tax, as it is paid by the final consumer, but that they were still at an impasse on that issue.
Trump has also proposed separate tariffs on autos, pharmaceuticals, and computer chips, in addition to having already imposed 25 percent levies on imported steel and aluminum.
Šefčovič also said they discussed the industrial overcapacity of China, particularly in steel, and that Europe and America should collaborate to tackle that problem instead of penalizing one other.
He also stressed that the meeting ended with a focus on looking for ways to “generate positive momentum,” adding that the EU would like to see where it can “move first and fast ... to avoid the pain of measures and countermeasures.”
He said it is critical to establish a personal relationship with his U.S. counterparts.
“I’m glad that it happened and that we could have such an intense meeting,” Šefčovič said.
“Now, I think we will both be thinking how to keep the momentum going on and how to hopefully avoid I would say, the pain.
“I think if we have to resolve 50 billion [euros], we can really do it ... and relatively quickly. We just need to continue to talk, to use the momentum which I hope we generated yesterday, and to focus on the positive agenda, and not on measures and countermeasures.”
Šefčovič said he told the U.S. officials that overall U.S. tariffs on the EU amounted to around 1.4 percent, while overall EU tariffs on U.S. goods were lower, at 0.9 percent, and that 70 percent of the goods arriving in Europe were tariff-free.
“I’ve decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office. “In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them, but those days are over.”
He confirmed that there will be no exemptions or exclusions.
