EU COMPANIES ON EDGE
Several business leaders said the sheer uncertainty made it hard to plan anything.
Gianmarco Giorda, managing director of Italy’s auto part maker lobby group ANFIA, told Reuters he still hoped the talks would succeed but that formulating strategies was complicated:
‘US duties are an additional source of concern in an already difficult scenario for the Italian automotive industry.”
Germany’s family-owned LAPP Group, which makes everything from cables and wires to robotics for factories, warned that some of its specialised products would still be affected by the volatile business environment.
“Unfortunately, current US politics is characterised by unpredictability, individual interests and populism,” CEO Matthias Lapp told Reuters.
“Germany’s good transatlantic relations have been built up over decades of diplomatic work and mutual understanding. However, confidence in their stability is currently suffering massive damage.”
EU-US NEGOTIATIONS WERE STUCK
The negotiations had been stuck, with Washington demanding unilateral concessions from Brussels to open up to US business while the EU seeks an agreement in which both sides could gain, according to people familiar with the talks.
The EU already faces 25% US import tariffs on its steel, aluminium and cars and so-called “reciprocal” tariffs of 10% for almost all other goods, a levy that had been due to rise to 20% after Trump’s 90-day pause expires in July.
The levy could increase to 50% in a no-deal scenario, which could raise consumer prices on everything from German BMWs to Italian olive oil and hurt demand for French luxury handbags from LVMH.
It was not clear, however, whether the 50% would be levied on imports not subject to the US ‘reciprocal’ tariff, such as steel, cars and other products subject to investigations, such as semiconductors, pharmaceutical products and lumber.
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