EU vehicles pose no threat to US, carmakers say as Trump mulls huge tariffs

European cars do not pose a threat to US national security, one of Germany’s biggest car lobbies said today as the White House considers slapping new tariffs on imports.

Lobby group the VDA said that the US benefits from German carmakers.

US President Donald Trump was today given a Commerce Department report into whether imported cars and parts threaten national security.

The classified report could lead Trump to hit European and other carmakers with hefty tariffs.

In May he floated the idea of a 25 per cent tax on imported vehicles.

But the VDA said German carmakers have created 113,000 jobs at around 300 US factories in recent years.

“All this strengthens the USA and is not a security problem,” it said, labelling calls to list EU cars as national security threats “incomprehensible”.

The comments echo a similar sentiment from German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend.

“We are proud of our cars and so we should be,” Merkel said, adding that many are made in US factories and exported to China. “If that is viewed as a security threat to the United States, then we are shocked,” she told a conference in Munich.

The German Ifo institute said a 25 per cent tax could halve long-term car exports to the US.

“These tariffs would cut total car exports from Germany by 7.7 per cent, which would amount to €18.4bn (£16.1bn),” Ifo foreign trade expert Gabriel Felbermayr said.

Meanwhile, politicians in the US worry that tariffs could hurt American car owners and buyers.

“Raising tariffs on cars and parts would be a huge tax on consumers who buy or service their cars, whether they are imported or domestically produced,” senator Chuck Grassley said.