Defending the trade deal struck with the US, the European Union’s (EU) Trade Commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, has said European automakers stand to gain around 500-600 million euros ($585-700 million) from the deal, thereby easing a major burden on them.
“It was the best deal available after difficult talks with Trump administration officials. Any other alternative would be much worse,” he said, adding that US President Donald Trump had threatened even higher rates during the talks.
The deal, which reduces tariffs on EU imports to the US to 15 per cent from a previous 27.5 per cent, is retroactive, which means that businesspeople, such as EU’s automakers, will have the tariffs levied in the month of August returned to them.
“The deal is retroactive to August 1, so what we expect now is that the tariffs will be returned to the automakers as of the first of August, which is something like 500, 600 million euros per month,” Sefcovic said ahead of a meeting with Southeast Asian trade ministers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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Sefcovic said that the deal establishing a 15 per cent tariff on most EU goods took effect with publication in the US Federal Register instructing customs officials what to charge.
While a lower tariff arrangement was the chief selling point for the deal, as presented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the 15 per cent tariff is still much higher than tariffs imposed from before Trump took office, which averaged in the single digits.
The EU-US trade deal has been criticised by business associations and some members of the European Parliament, although Sefcovic insisted that most member states supported the deal and that after detailed exchanges and presentations on the details, he expected lawmakers would support it as well.
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