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Chancellor Friedrich Merz is in his expectation that the German auto industry will be spared US tariffs from US tariffs, according to the EU officials who are involved in the trade talks with the Trump administration.
Merz has pushed the European Commission, which manages trade policy on behalf of the 27 Member States of the EU to sign a “framework” contract with Washington Aping in the US UK agreement, which was signed at the beginning of this month and included a special dispensation for cars.
But the Brussels officers announced Berlin privately that such an agreement would not be possible, since reducing German author imports is a big focus for US President Donald Trump.
At the beginning of this week, Merz criticized the commission for the management of “too complicated” negotiations and said that a deal should concentrate on four to five important industries, including automotive, steel and pharmaceuticals, in which Trump has already threatened sectoral tariffs.
However, the Commission officers say that they are most difficult to remove because Trump wants to redesign these industries in the USA and reduce imports.
The EU negotiator believe that cars are the “most difficult element” of a contract with the White House and, according to the people, according to which slight aspects have been agreed.
Berlin was “delusional” to believe that Trump was the first step to agree to concessions for German car manufacturers, one of the officials said.
The separation between the EU Executive and the largest economy of the block occurred on Thursday at a summit of managers in Brussels, where they should discuss the US trade relationship. The Commission officials hoped that the heads of state and government would support a “credible threat” of the retaliation measures in order to complete the deal with a period of July.
“I support the Commission to quickly get to a trade agreement with the USA,” said Merz when he arrived at the summit.
Trump threatened 50 percent “mutual” tariffs for EU imports if no deal is hit by July 9th.
In the meantime, so-called sectoral tariffs of 25 percent for cars and auto parts and 50 percent for steel and aluminum are still present-as with most other imports, this is a tariff of 10 percent.
Several countries are careful to make too many concessions to make a quick offer. With regard to the agreement on the United Kingdom-USA, a high-ranking EU diplomat said that the block should “still hope that the EU with its 450 million people would have more merchant than the United Kingdom”.
A carve-out in Great Britain would be complicated for the sector if it is a quota system. Trump agreed to reduce a tariff of 27.5 percent for British cars to 10 percent for the first 100,000 vehicles that were shipped from Great Britain. A similar deal for the EU would have the Member States fight against the allocation of the quota.
Another high -ranking EU diplomat said: “The mandate we gave the commission … be to go to the lowest possible tariffs”. They added that “10 percent are not the mandate we have given” in relation to Great Britain, which the 10 percent delivery accepted for most goods to stay in place.
If the deal is “not balanced”, the diplomat said that the EU would be “ready to implement meter duties”.
The block has already agreed, but the use of retaliation tariffs to EUR 21 billion is suspended from US goods and prepares another package for American products worth € 95 billion.
The Germany’s economy depends on exports and was hit particularly hard by the tariffs. Acea, the automotive industry, said that the car manufacturers would have lost “single -digit million” a day. The German auto industry accounts for about 5 percent of the country GDP.
According to Great Britain, the United States is the second largest market for EU vehicle exports. In 2024, more than 750,000 cars worth € 38.9 billion were exported. According to ACEA, the USA exported 169,000 to the EU of EUR 7.8 billion.
BMW is particularly optimistic among German car manufacturers that the United States will reduce its 25 percent tariff from July. Oliver Zipse, Managing Director of BMW, informed investors in mid-May that the company could negotiate a position of “strength” as the largest US automobile exporter last year and sent 225,000 vehicles worth more than 10 billion from its work in Spartanburg.
BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other European automobile manufacturers have urged the United States to allow a service stand-up program that would help them to receive reimbursements from import duties if they also export vehicles from America.
Senior employees of the three best German car manufacturers met Trump in the White House in mid -April. Merz also created the car problem with Trump when they met in the Oval Office at the beginning of this month.
“I said I was driving an American car with a German brand,” said Merz after the meeting, to explain to the US President that many German car manufacturers, including BMW, produced vehicles in the USA before exporting to Europe.
While Merz agreed to the US as soon as possible, some German car manufacturers are less optimistic. “It is currently a mixed bag,” said an automotive officer. “At the end of the day it is the EU that negotiates with the USA.”
Another person in a German automobile manufacturer said: “The negotiations seem to be a bit firm. It is frustrating … that the EU lets the time pass.”
