TRADE WAR: Juncker admits RELIEF at Trump's pullback on car tariffs - 'Thank goodness!'
JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker revealed how relieved he was when he agreed on the terms of a truce with Donald Trump, putting on hold the feared trade war between Brussels and Washington.
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The president of the European Commission opened up on the meeting he had in July with the US president. Speaking about his trip to Washington, Mr Juncker said on Monday he spent “six hours with Trump” discussing trade at the peak of the tensions between the EU and the US. Their talks ended with an agreement on “holding off on further tariffs”, which meant good news for many exporters, in particular the German car industry which would have been heavily sanctioned by a trade war.
Two days before, Trump still said he would slap tariffs on imports of European cars, but thank goodness he didn’t do that
Mr Juncker said: “It was a very competitive event, pretty rough from time to time. It was no fun, no entertainment, but there is no new trade war between the US and Europe.
“Two days before, Trump still said he would slap tariffs on imports of European cars, but thank goodness he didn’t do that.”
Following their trade talks in July, Mr Juncker revealed he had agreed for Europe to import more US soybean and facilitate imports of liquefied natural gas.
In exchange, Mr Trump would not keep up with his promise to curb European exports.
The US president started waging tariffs targeting the EU on March 1, when he announced the introduction of a 25 percent tax on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium.
Two days later, Mr Juncker announced the possibility of introducing retaliatory measures against US products, including Kentucky bourbon, Levi jeans and iconic Harley-Davidson vehicles.
Mr Trump replied tit-for-tat, warning an EU retaliation would spark higher tariffs on European cars.
He said: "If the EU wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on US companies doing business there, we will simply apply a tax on their cars which freely pour into the US.
“They make it impossible for our cars and more to sell there. Big trade imbalance!"
Mr Trump has deemed Europe’s auto sector trade in the US unfair for a long time.
In January 2017, prior to his inauguration, the then president-elect said in an interview: “When you walk down Fifth Avenue, everyone has a Mercedes-Benz in front of their house.
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"How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany?
“Not too many, maybe none at all, you do not see anything over there, it's a one-way street.
"I love free trade, but it must be a smart trade for me to call it fair."
German carmakers sold 1.35 million vehicles in the US in 2017 - about eight percent of the total car sales in the country.