• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Monday, August 15, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Levying Tariffs on European Cars Would Be Counterproductive

Stepan Hobza by Stepan Hobza
04/17/20
in Opinion
Palestinians Donald Trump Davos Palestinian aid Benjamin Netanyahu

US President Donald J. Trump Photo: Dominick Reuter, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

“Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S.,” tweeted President Donald Trump on Saturday, (always a quickly passing denomination), “and it great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here!”

That is a curious appeal as that is exactly what the European carmakers have been doing for some time. The biggest BMW factory in the world is currently based in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It produces up to 450,000 cars every year.

Each and every Mercedes SUV model driving around the world has been made in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. That factory alone employs 3,700 people and supports more than 10,000 jobs in the region. And it is not only German carmakers – Trump’s most favorite punch bag – that are coming to the U.S. on a large scale.

As recent as three days ago the Swedish giant Volvo opened its brand-new factory in Charleston. The original plan to invest $500 million was promising enough, yet Volvo has doubled up to $1.1 billion and announced that the plant would ultimately employ 3,900 workers. Are these not the “jobs, jobs, jobs” President Trump likes to mention so much? Are they somehow less important, of lesser value? Are they fake jobs?

With Trump’s recent Tweet threatening to put a 20 percent tariff on cars imported to the U.S., the president has come back to one of his favorite topics. “If you go down Fifth Avenue,” he commented to the German tabloid Bild a few months ago, “everyone has a Mercedes-Benz in front of their house, isn’t that the case? How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all… it’s a one-way street.”

The response of the then German Vice Chancellor Siegmar Gabriel was short and apt. Asked by a reporter what he would recommend Trump to reverse this “big imbalance,” he simply said: “To build better cars.”

Another recommendation might have been to lead by example. Yet, that has never been Trump’s strong point. Trump, or rather his ghost-writers, has written many books, and one of them is called Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life. On page 105 Trump talks about his cars: “My favorite car is a Mercedes. I’ve had one for a long time… I also have a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, and a bunch of other cars in different places.”

Surprisingly, no mention of Chevrolets at all. All listed cars are built by an E.U.-based producer. Whether they are still in Trump’s possession is difficult to assess. If he had sold them, though, we would probably know. He has never been too shy in mentioning his good deeds.

However remarkable and amusing, the contents of Trump’s garage – luckily or unluckily – is not the point here. Appealing to his conscience is not either. Even to conceive such an action would seem ludicrous anyway. To persuade American author Dan Brown that Illuminati do not exist would be an easier task.

A more important problem is that the international trade and geopolitics simply do not work the way Trump imagines they do. Taxing European cars surely seems a brilliant idea to any Trump supporter. Yet Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, announced in March that any action of a similar nature from the American side would prompt a quick retaliation from the E.U. Following a clear enough strategy, Juncker mentioned popular American products originating in the home states of key Republican leaders: Kentucky bourbon or Wisconsin-based Harley-Davidson.

A full-scale trade war between several NATO allies is at stake, something that a few years ago would have seemed a science fiction scenario. All implications of such war are too horrid to think of.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
Share2Tweet
Stepan Hobza

Stepan Hobza

Graduated from the Charles University in Prague and contributes poems, short stories, and essays to literary and political magazines

Related Posts

Mar-A-Lago raid
National

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

by Staff Writer
August 9, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Owning the Words and the Libs

by Stephen J. Lyons
June 16, 2022
US Capitol riot
National

Trump ‘More Likely Than Not’ Obstructed Congress: US Judge

by Staff Writer
March 28, 2022
A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather on the West side of the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021
Opinion

How Praise and Blame Rhetoric Are Poisoning American Democracy

by Ryan Skinnell
November 2, 2021
Pro-abortion rights activists rally at the Texas State Capitol in Austin against SB8, September 11.
Featured

The Horrors of a Repressive Regime, American Style

by Stephen J. Lyons
October 26, 2021
US President Donald Trump
Featured

Trump Observes the Anniversary of the 9/11 Tragedy in the Brothel of Sports

by Edward C. Halperin
October 26, 2021
Next Post
Migrants on a boat at sea

Italy Calls for Migrant Centers South of Libya

Mogherini delivers a speech

EU Calls for End to Violence in Yemen, Humanitarian Access

Recommended

Marina Ovsyannikova

Russian TV Journalist Faces Jail Time for Anti-Putin Protest

August 10, 2022
Mar-A-Lago raid

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

August 9, 2022
Ukraine nuclear plant

Ukraine Calls for De-Militarization of Occupied Nuclear Plant

August 8, 2022
Toru Kubota

Myanmar Junta Charges Japanese Journalist With Encouraging Dissent

August 4, 2022
Nancy Pelosi

Taiwan Defiant as China Readies Military Drills Over Pelosi Visit

August 3, 2022
Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022

Opinion

Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Owning the Words and the Libs

June 16, 2022
Officers in Uvalde, Texas, stand outside Robb Elementary School near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims

Child Sacrifice Makes a Comeback

June 3, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post