Wouldn’t it be great to have a World without tariffs?
The US since long have suffered under the tariffs set by other countries on US products. The average tariff of China on US goods was 35%, while the US charged 2%.
The EU had substantial tariffs but more important non-tariff trade barriers, rules and regulations to protect the EU market.
There are certain preferences by the EU and tariffs/ customs duty range between 0-17%. In addition, the import to a EU country is subject to Import VAT. In the case of Germany, a car import from outside the EU is subject to 10% customs duty and additionally 19% import VAT, totalling that tariff cost to 29%. In addition, the EU imposes strict rules on product conformity, green qualities, etc. Such regulations are costly for cars manufacturers to comply with and would either increase further the import costs or just make it impossible to import cars at all. The EU market is perfectly protected, and may be even more protected from 2035 on when only electrical cars may be admitted.
Donald Trump has now increased the tariff on German and other EU cars from 2% to 25%, still a lower tariff than Germany applies on US cars.
Wouldn’t it be perfect to abolish all tariffs, taxes, rules and regulations obstructing the free circulations of products? Will the EU be able to accept US made products at US standards and without charging anything on their import? Hard to believe that EU ideologists will agree to a free and open market between the EU and the US.
Maybe an idea for the UK to lobby on both sides of the Atlantic?
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