In his latest tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump hopes that both the U.S. and EU drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies, ahead of his scheduled meet with EU trade chiefs.
Last month, Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs to 20% from 2.5% on cars imported from the EU into the U.S. Apparently aiming to temper trade tensions, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom will meet Trump on Wednesday to propose a lowering of levies on automobiles and auto-parts among all major car exporters (akin to a plurilateral agreement).
On Tuesday night, Trump’s post on Twitter about the meeting reads, “I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! “. The President’s tweet said that he is ready to usher in “Free Market and Fair Trade”, but suggested that EU might not be.
Hours before his latest tweet, however, Trump had tweeted that tariffs are the “greatest", and hinted that the U.S. is ready to slap tariffs on trade partners unless it gets a “fair deal” from them.
If Wednesday’s talks fails to have both parties agree on terms of tariffs and trade, we won’t be surprised if the U.S.-EU trade war escalates to a whole new level. EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said that the bloc is preparing a list of “rebalancing measures” on $20 billion worth of American goods, to be implemented if Donald Trump decides to go ahead with the tariff hike on car imports.