After months of threats, the White House presented plans on Wednesday to impose tariffs on imported cars to the United States, a plan that probably affects automotive companies throughout the European Union.
The movement, which would put a 25 percent tariff on all cars that are not built in the United States, could increase pressure on Europe to respond with countermeasures.
European Union officials have already announced plans to allow tariffs that were instituted during the first mandate of President Trump to place in place, and have said that they will place a new set of tariffs in a wide variety of American products, from lingerie to soy products, in mid -April.
But those measures were an answer to steel and aluminum rates. And his first wave, aimed at hitting American whiskey and motorcycles, was delayed to allow more negotiation time and for fear of an American response that could crush European exports of wine and champagne.
The last US movement can intensify the urgency of the European Union to retaliate. Automotive tariffs could squeeze an industry that is already vulnerable, especially in the largest economy in Europe, Germany, which sends cars to US consumers of companies such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. That makes the tariffs a serious escalation in a commercial war that has already left Europe fighting.
“I deeply regret the United States’s decision to impose tariffs on European automotive exports,” said Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, in a statement on Wednesday.
The European Union “will evaluate this announcement, along with other measures that the United States provides in the next few days,” he added, and “will continue to seek negotiated solutions, while safeguarding their economic interests.”
The United States is the largest export market in the European Union for cars, which represents almost a quarter of all its exported vehicles.
In 2024, European car manufacturers sent 38.4 billion euros in cars throughout the Atlantic, 4.6 percent less than the previous year, according to the European Makers Association Automobile, Acea.
Automatic tariffs “will definitely be a great annoyance for optimism recently returned in Europe,” said Carsten Brzeski, Macro Global Chief for the investigation of Ing. In particular, they could “damage German exports and increase the possibilities of continuous stagnation.”
The three largest German manufacturers represent about 73 percent of automotive exports of the European Union to the United States, according to the Jato Dynamics research firm.
And the United States is the most important export market for the German automotive industry. Almost one in three Porsches is exported to the United States, while one in six BMW is sent there. Mercedes, Volkswagen and Audi (a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group) have production sites in the United States and Mexico, but would be difficult due to the increase in tariffs.
BMW warned this month that he expected the growing commercial conflicts to cost the company $ 1 billion this year.
“If you exaggerate with tariffs, send a negative spiral to all market participants,” said Oliver Zipse, president of BMW, Bloomberg. “There are no winners in that game.”
Cars are just a sector that faces increases in steep rates. In addition to steel and aluminum rates, the United States plans to announce what the administration calls “reciprocal” tariffs next Wednesday.
Their objective, says the administration, is to match the rates of rates between several nations and America.
Maros Sefcovic, Commissioner of Commerce of the European Commission, and Bjoern Seibert, chief of cabinet of the president of the commission, Washington visited on Tuesday to speak with his American counterparts: Howard Lutnick, the secretary of Commerce, and Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative.
On Wednesday, European ambassadors heard an account of those meetings, according to three diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversations were private.
The conclusion was that reciprocal tariffs could be in both digits, two of the diplomats said, perhaps even 20 percent or more, an aggregate, although the figure was uncertain and the range of wide estimates. Tariffs would apply in all areas for EU countries.
“The EU priority is a fair and balanced treatment instead of unjustified tariffs,” said Sefcovic in X after its meetings this week. “We share the objective of the industrial force on both sides.”
Although the European Union has a relatively low rate rate on average, the United States has indicated that it will take into account other factors by calculating reciprocal rates, including value added taxes. Those are consumption taxes added to a good or service at each production stage, and are returned to the exporter if a product is exported. Trump has been a critic for a long time of those policies.
Trump said while announcing car rates on Wednesday that the next reciprocal tariffs would be “indulgent” and that “we are going to be very fair.” He offered few concrete details.
March 26, 2025
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An earlier version of this article erroneously indicated the value of cars that European car manufacturers sent through the Atlantic last year. There were 38.4 billion euros, not € 38.4 million.
