Trade War? Trump Threatens 35% Tax on BMWs Prompting Germany’s Economics Minister to Trash Quality of US Autos

‘How Many Chevrolets Do You See in Germany?’ Trump Asked

Donald Trump is now threatening BMW with a whopping 35 percent tariff, prompting Germany economy minister to denigrate the quality of American cars.

“Germany is a great country, great manufacturing country — you go down Fifth Avenue everybody has a Mercedes-Benz in front of their building, right — the fact is that it’s been very unfair to the US, it’s not a two-way street,” Trump told the former editor of a German newspaper in an interview published by The Times of London on Monday.

“How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Maybe none — not too many — how many — you don’t see anything over there — it’s a one-way street — it’s gotta be a two-way street,” Trump insisted.

Asked if Trump expects German auto manufacturers to build more plants in the U.S., Trump responded, “I would tell BMW if they think they’re gonna build a plant in Mexico and sell cars into the US without a 35 per cent tax, it’s not gonna happen, it’s not gonna happen — so if they want to build cars for the world I would say wish them luck — they can build cars for the US but they’ll be paying a 35 per cent tax on every car that comes into the country.”

Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s economy minister and vice-chancellor, immediately hit back, attacking American auto manufacturers.

“The American car industry is getting worse, weaker and more expensive,” Gabriel told German newspaper Bild, on Monday, according to MarketWatch. He added, “the U.S. needs to build better cars” if Americans are choosing German cars over American-made autos.

“I believe BMW’s biggest factory is already in the US, in Spartanburg,” South Carolina, Gabriel added, according to The Guardian. “The US car industry would have a bad awakening if all the supply parts that aren’t being built in the US were to suddenly come with a 35% tariff. I believe it would make the US car industry weaker, worse and above all more expensive. I would wait and see what the Congress has to say about that, which is mostly full of people who want the opposite of Trump.”

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license