President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected as “not good enough” a European Union proposal scrapping tariffs on automobiles, a move which threatens to amplify a simmering trans-Atlantic trade dispute.
Just hours earlier, the EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem had said the bloc was “willing to bring down... Our car tariffs to zero” provided that the US did the same.
“It’s not good enough,” Trump told Bloomberg News yesterday in an Oval Office interview, speaking of the Brussels offer.
“Their consumer habits are to buy their cars, not to buy our cars.” The White House in July sought to defuse the trade tiff when Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met and pledged to work towards a limited trade accord that would eliminate customs duties, but excluded the automobile sector.
Trump also compared the EU to China.
He has reportedly threatened to slap import taxes on $200 billion in Chinese goods, as a trade war escalates with Beijing.