BRUSSELS (Reuters) -U.S. tariffs of 15% on imports from the European Union still allow trade with the United States to flow and what is important is not the rate itself but the level compared with competitors, a senior European Commission trade official said on Wednesday.
“There is a level … where a tariff becomes prohibitive and trade will no longer flow, but with the 15% all-inclusive that is not where we are,” Sabine Weyand, director-general of the EU executive’s trade division, told a European Parliament hearing.
Weyand, part of the EU team that struck a framework deal with the Trump administration at the end of July, advised EU lawmakers to vote in favour of EU plans to fulfil its side of the deal by removing its duties on U.S. industrial products.
She said data from the second quarter showed EU transatlantic trade had held firm and in some cases increased, with the exception of cars that faced a 27.5% tariff.
“The U.S. will not be able to produce all these products, which it has now made more expensive to import,” she told the parliament’s trade committee, adding EU competitiveness depended on the U.S. duty set for the EU relative to its rate for others.
Until August 1, U.S. imports from the EU were subject to a broad 10% tariff, plus pre-existing most favoured nation duties of an average 4.8%.
The 27-nation European Union is now the only trading partner to have a flat rate – in its case of 15% – tariff on its goods with no addition of MFN rates. Under its new deal, the 15% rate is also due to apply to cars from the EU.
Weyand told lawmakers that the deal was the best on offer, with Trump previously threatening tariffs of 30% on goods from the EU.
“In any negotiation, you need to look at what is the alternative. We would all wish that the alternative was that we would all trade on MFN duties as used to be the case… but that is no longer an option with the U.S,” she said.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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