After months of threats, the White House unveiled plans on Wednesday to impose tariffs on automobiles imported to the United States, a plan that is likely to hit car companies across the European Union hard.
The move — which would place a 25 percent tariff on all cars not built in the United States — could ramp up pressure on Europe to respond with countermeasures.
European Union officials have already announced plans to allow tariffs that were instituted during President Trump’s first term to snap back into place, and have said they will place a new set of tariffs on a wide variety of American goods — from lingerie to soy products — by mid-April.
But those measures were a response to steel and aluminum tariffs. And their first wave, meant to hit American whiskey and motorcycles, was delayed to allow for more negotiating time and over fears of a stark American response that could crush European wine and Champagne exports.
The latest U.S. move may intensify the urgency for the European Union to retaliate. Automotive tariffs could squeeze an industry that is already vulnerable — especially in Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, which sends American consumers cars from companies like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. That makes the tariffs a serious escalation in a trade war that has already left Europe scrambling.
“I deeply regret the U.S. decision to impose tariffs on European automotive exports,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said in a statement on Wednesday.