Concern among European automakers about the possibility of Donald Trump applying tariffs

The application of duty of the president of the United States would mean higher auto prices for American consumers and would hit global automakers.

That’s what Germany’s powerful auto industry warned today, as auto stocks fell on the prospect of higher U.S. tariffs on imports.

In his first term as president of USATrump applied a series of tariffs on washing machines, solar panels, and imports of steel and aluminum, which affected countries around the world, political allies or not. During the last election campaign, he promised even more and put the automotive sector in his sights.

In an attempt to increase US manufacturing employment, Trump had considered adding a 10% tariff on all imports; Then he talked about 20%. Everything from China would be hit by a devastating 60% tariff.

Hildegard Mueller, President of the German automobile association VDA, said at an annual press conference that the tariffs announced by Trump would raise inflation in the United States.

“Donald Trump promised in his election campaign to reduce inflation,” he said. “In this regard, we look forward to further discussions on this issue.”

The European car manufacturers They exported almost 740,000 vehicles to the US – just over 10% of them electric -, for an amount of just over 37,000 million euros. And yet, Europe only bought about 272,000 cars produced in the US for a value of less than 9,000 million in that same period.

The head of Mercedes-Benz and new president of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Ola Källenius, He asked the European Union to urgently reach a “major agreement” with the United States “to avoid a trade war” that could be devastating for an already weakened sector.

In the case of Volkswagen, it exports to the United States all Porsche models from Europe and they take advantage of their plant in Mexico to introduce the Audi Q5, one of their most successful models.

In the Financial Times they warn that gaining followers in the United States is more important than ever for Volkswagen. They point out that in China their sales have fallen and that the situation in Europe is not optimistic. All in all, the aforementioned plant manufactured 100,000 units of the Volkswagen ID.4 and, however, it only placed 17,000 units on the local market.

Global automakers produce cars in Mexico for sale in the United States, and the Central American country is an integral part of the supply chain for American auto production.

Major suppliers, such as Bosch and Continental, have been working on ways to shift some production and mitigate the impact, but U.S. tariffs on Mexican auto imports would hurt both automakers and U.S., European, and American suppliers. Japanese and South Koreans.