The US president cleverly uses his business skills in political activities. While the EU authorities are thinking about signing a new trade agreement and trying to protect their interests, Trump is attempting to motivate the local business. To that end, the Trump administration has invited the heads of Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler, the leaders of the German automobile industry, to the White House to discuss US tariffs on carmakers and let them know what portion of earnings they can lose if they do not comply with the new terms.
According to sources in the presidential administration, from the American side, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Chief Economic Advisor to President Lawrence Cadlow plan to take part in the meeting. There may be a brief audience with Trump, but this issue is still being agreed.
“The president does not want to raise duties, but he doesn’t see any action on the part of Brussels and may be forced to resort to such leverage,” the source stated. The main requirement of Trump for the German automakers is to increase their production capacity in the United States. This particularly applies to increasing the output of finished products of automakers, as well as the transfer of the component production. This should reduce dependence on the imports of parts. However, the German automakers claim that their production volumes meet all the requirements and even exceed them. The official figures indicate that since 2009, the production in the country has increased fourfold, raising the bar to 804.2 thousand cars a year. This volume corresponds to about 7.4 percent of the production of all passenger cars in the United States. But it turns out that is not enough for Trump.
