ECONOMY Trump doubles up with European car tax threat

US President Donald Trump is keeping up pressure on trading partners, threatening European car makers with a tax on imports if the European Union retaliates against his plan to slap tariffs on aluminum and steel.

A tweet by Mr Trump suggested he was refusing to yield to US business interests and foreign trading partners alarmed at the prospect of a trade war, which rattled financial markets this week.

“If the EU wants to further increase their already massive tariffs and barriers on US companies doing business there, we will simply apply a Tax on their Cars which freely pour into the US,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “They make it impossible for our cars (and more) to sell there. Big trade imbalance!” The US imposes a 2.5 per cent tariff on cars assembled in Europe and a 25 per cent tariff on European-built vans and pickup trucks.

Europe imposes a 10 per cent tariff on US built cars.

Mr Trump criticised Europe in remarks at a fundraiser, according to video posted online Saturday, and suggested they would not increase tariffs.

“The European Union: brutal. They’ve been brutal to us,” Mr Trump said at a Florida fundraiser.

“They’ve banded together in order to beat the United States in trade.”

Mr Trump did not respond to questions about tariffs or other topics upon returning to the White House Saturday.

In a speech Friday night at Harvard University, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said the EU would respond to the tariffs “to defend European industry and the world trading system”, according to a copy of her remarks.

She called the Mr Trump’s action “one-sided protectionist measures, which hurt, not just jobs, but the whole system of rules that makes our global economy work”.

German automakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW build vehicles at plants in the US. BMW employs more than 9,000 workers in South Carolina and is one of the state’s largest employers.

The United States accounts for about 15 per cent of worldwide Mercedes-Benz and BMW brand sales, while it accounts for 5 per cent of VW brand sales and 12 per cent of Audi sales. The US had a $22.3 billion automotive vehicle and parts trade deficit with Germany in 2017 and a $7bn deficit with the UK, according to US government data. Last year, Germany’s automotive trade association said “the United States would be shooting itself in the foot by imposing tariffs or other trade barriers”.

Mr Trump’s threat comes amid mounting transatlantic tension on trade.

On Thursday, Mr Trump said the US would apply duties of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminum to protect domestic producers.

Major automakers say the move will hike the cost of cars and trucks.

The next day, European Commission President JeanClaude Juncker told German television “we will put tariffs on Harley-Davidson, on bourbon and on blue jeans – Levis.”

Canada also has said it will retaliate for any tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Mr Trump had tweeted on Friday that trade wars are good and “easy to win”, roiling US financial markets.

In January 2017, Mr Trump warned German car companies he would impose a border tax of 35 per cent on vehicles imported to the US market.