President Trump reportedly has outlined plans to potentially ban the sale of German luxury cars in the United States. Affected makes would include Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche and others.
Forbes reported on Thursday that the president reportedly first mentioned the plan to French President Emmanuel Macron. Diplomatic sources said President Trump wants to maintain the German ban until “no Mercedes models rolled on Fifth Avenue in New York.”
The news follows the potential for new auto tariffs as high as 25 percent on imported cars to the United States. The tariffs are envisioned to boost U.S. auto production. Both Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and BMW operate manufacturing facilities in the U.S. as well.
No official announcement has come from the White House on such a proposal, but should such a ban go into effect, would it be good for GM?
Foremost, it’s hard to imagine major German luxury makes simply closing up shop in the U.S. with their vast dealership networks and aftersale support. However, in a world where major German makes exit the market, that would leave Japanese and American luxury brands as the only options.
It’s also not the first time President Trump has called out German carmakers. Last year, the president called the Germans “very bad” and said he wants to stop German vehicle sales in the U.S.
Comments
Come on you as well as everyone including Mr. Trump know German cars will not be banned.
The reality here is this is just the first volley in a tough negotiation with the German government to win back some of the many things past administrations have given away with little in return.
In winning back ground you have to state the extreme and then work back to win some things back and then form a deal both sides can live with.
Appeasement never works and only leaves you at a disadvantage. It is time we as a country should stand for what is right not just what others want.
“Mr Trump knows German cars will not be banned”
So he is lying deliberately to the American people then?
He never said this to the American people. But keep trying.
More Fake News from the butthurt, sore loser left-winger Sean on here. No he did NOT say he would ban German cars at all. So sad that you still cant accept you lost the election and it is time move on.
Might want to look at the outstanding job numbers, including black and Hispanic unemployment at the lowest level ever, billions being invested into U.S. by foreign car companies, and overall amazing growth of the U.S. stock market and economy since President Trump took office. Instead, Sean, and your lefty sidekick Old Trombone, just spew more anti-Trump lies and propaganda. The American people are tired of this extremist politics that seeks to divide and not do anything positive. Thank God we have someone tough like Mr. Trump as President who is standing up for American workers and the American economy.
Meanwhile, the leftists have no message, no solutions, and no hope. Sean will never learn. Too bad for him. Enjoy the next 7 years of the Trump Presidency.
I don’t think Sean likes me at all, specially after we had a stern argument over the Bolt, with him criticizing it roundly and me trying to dismiss his points (unsuccessfully though, of course Szymkowski is a professional car testing journalist who actually had a Bolt to drive, unlike me). Take your “Szymkowski/Trombone Dark Web” conspiracy back to Alex Jones.
If that’s the case, your country won’t exist in seven years.
The largest military spending in the world and you keep losing all these wars. Solidly defeated in Irak with the Chinese and Russians getting all the oil contracts and a government solidly aligned with Iran. Yes Iran won that war. And 16 years in Afghanistan with absolutely nothing to show or it. The Taliban will have their biggest poppy crop this year and they are back to controlling the entire country. You can’t even step out of your bases. LOSERS! China are getting all the mining contracts in the country.
21 trillion $ deficit and climbing rapidly. At the core, the Soviets were brought down by their financial system. 350 million guns and the next financial crisis is your destiny.
I’m glad I quit the democratic party 11 years ago, because at how sucky and despicable they truly are.
Said the Rusty trombone guy
American sales employees of dealers who sell German cars are now facing immediate unemployment as their dealer principal has to hedge just in case and starts reducing employee commitment to the brand, thus the sales person is now seeking home mortgage refinancing, desperately looking for a new job, consolidating all their investments into liquid cash just in case, and then Trump says “Its just a negosh ploy, no biggie!”
But the sales person is still out. Who cares, Scott, right, “America” is so much more important than Americans, right?
I suppose you don’t have a link to a news article outlining all of the “immediate unemployed” BMW and Mercedes dealers in the US? Maybe a link to an interview with one of them illustrating their alleged plight?
If not, your post is pure conjecture and fantasy.
Oh please they are not going to lose their jobs. Get in the real world.
I can see you have never negotiated.
This is not unlike buying a car. You go in and make a low offer. The counter. You go back and foruth to make a fair deal agreeable to both sides.
America for too long went in and has paid sticker price as not to offend. Well where has that got us. We have a lot of bad agreements.
Appeasement has gotten us no were with Korea, Iran and China. It is time someone brokers a deal that is not giving it all away. Obama gave away much of our leverage on Iran now look at the Middle East. Talk about being upside down.
Boner you have to consider this you need to protect America as with out America there would be no Americans.
You statements clearly show you have taken the bait hook line and sinker. Just another fish being realer in by the big lie.
You actually think the politicians really care about you? Lol!
Most of these folks are bought paid for and owned to control you. Much of the media also is owned by them too and they will destroy anyone who gets in the way of the power grab.
America ain’t a business. It’s a State. It has signed treaties (including with the Cherokee and Seminole…) that guarantee certain types of behavior, including truth-telling. If you want America to act as a business, then Detroit city government’s present will be America’s future. And yes, Detroit city tried the “make a deal by getting as much as you can out of the interlocutor” method, and these interlocutors – businesses, non-profits, HMO’s etc – walked away in droves after each first deal was over. They weren’t interested in any more deals. Look at Europe’s treatment of the Zucker, they don’t “lowball” him, they don’t offer him anything at all. They made the law bring his company to heel. By force. I don’t see Trump “dealing” with Zucker in any way other than promoting him or staying silent over his outrageous behavior.
Did Nixon make lowballs to Mao?
Did Eisenhower make lowballs to MacArthur?
Did Reagan make lowballs to Gorbachev?
Did BushII make lowballs to Hussein?
Nope!
These Presidents used the power of America to say the exact thing that the other State had to do, and that State did it, or suffered military action. That’s how States make “deals”.
“This is not unlike buying a car. You go in and make a low offer. The counter. You go back and foruth to make a fair deal agreeable to both sides.”
Ever wonder why fully 65% of the population hate going to car dealers? Why several Carmax style 2nder dealers with fixed pricing are going so well?
Why does literally every normal Joe who just wants to buy a car have to be a freakn Dominator Hard-pushing no-BS negotiator? Why don’t OEM dealers just put the best price in print on the car? Is that so hard? Why does average-Joe have to be the smart insider who already knows what the price should be and the sales person be a totally stoopid dummy who can’t work out the proper price of the goods they’re hawking?
scott3, you are on the correct track. I don’t think anyone truly believes for a minute that German cars will be banned and eventually vanish. That’s just nonsense. It is the start of renegotiating how business is conducted.
Pis$ing people off isn’t good business either. Behaving like a bully will just turn the entire world against the US and this is a battle which can’t be won. The US needs the rest of the world a lot more than the other way around.
People think the US needs the world more then the world needs the US until it comes time to go to war! The next one of these sorry a$$ countries that needs help to stop a bad guy in their region, that country will turn to the US to save their backside again!
You turn your nose up to America until you have a problem you cant solve, then you come running to the president asking for help.
We are not living in post WW2 and your comment is completely false in today’s world. The EU will increasingly distance itself from the US. Electing Trump is a sign of weakness, not strength and the US is a mere shadow of its former self and is increasingly irrelevant on the world stage. Trump will expedite this process.
Putin and the Chinese are laughing in disbelief at the stupidity of Trump attacking allies.
Maybe time to tune CNN out for a while.
For the past 60 years we Americans have elected politicians who have sold us out in favor of other countries throughout the world. Three fourths of what we purchase are either made or grown in another country. American jobs have constantly moved overseas and most of our population growth comes from illegal immigrants since we are mass murdering our babies through abortions. That is why so many of our small towns and cities have become ghost bedroom communities with poor sources for good income regardless of education. Yes Putin, China, and many countries including Mexico have been laughing us Americans for some decades. Finally, we have gladly elected President Trump who is putting America first for a change. Full-time jobs with higher wages are making a rapid come back. We are beginning to sing “God Bless America” for the first time in decades. If we trust God and follow Trump, we are MAGA!!
And pizza babies! And let’s talk about my pants-equipment in an election in front of children! And Spicer/ScaraMoochi/Hicks/Huckabee, one of them had a CV from Miss America, great communicator of course! And the FBI hates America! And PC used to be bad, but now it’s compulsory! And a 33yo ungrown boy whose daddy gave him a starving population can swing Trump around his pinky day after day after day after day after day etc. “We will have a summit”. “Nope no summit”. “Yep it’s back on”. “Nope, I don’t feel like it today”, meanwhile Trump says “he’s not ready yet. I don’t think he wants me yet. I think I’ll stay home until Kim tells me I can do this, or if I can do that. Hey Kim, what should I tweet today sir?” And Kim replies “If you’re a good boy Donald, I’ll get Ban Ki Moon to give you the Peace Prize”
Howard.
You’re being taken up the backside and you are too much of a fool to realize what is happening. And you’ve convinced yourself that you like it. Fool!
LOL, Putin is definitely laughing at us now. I hope you’re paid to post such talking points because in the real world:
1. Trump is the least Godly man to ever sit in the Oval Office.
2. Trump has done NOTHING to stop outsourcing. No policy changes have been made whatsoever. Outsourcing companies still enjoy tax benefits – in fact Trump favors letting American companies move their profits from abroad back to the US under lower tax rates.
3. Trump places no blame on the manufacturers doing the outsourcing. Odd, that.
4. Illegal immigration is the lowest it’s been since the 50s. Not sure why illegal immigrants would cause outsourcing – seems like they would be a source of cheap domestic labor.
5. About that cheap illegal immigrant labor – Trump relied on it heavily for his construction projects and used illegals to break construction unions on his sites.
I’m not a liberal on immigration. IMO it should be limited and I think we need to stop illegal immigration. Where I differ from Trump is that I think it’s inhumane to take people who’ve spent their entire lives here and deport them to countries they haven’t been in since they were young children. I also believe that a wall is the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a long time. Put the funds towards hiring more ICE agents and have them investigate and shut down businesses that employ illegal immigrants. Do that and the entire problem will quickly go away.
Of course you’ll never see Trump go after employeers who hire illegals because Trump doesn’t give a rat’s arse about illegal laborers. He’s a demagogue and thus he only uses illegals as a political tool to garner nationalist support.
“not living in post WW2”?
You mean the USA is living pre WW3, then.
Right?
It’s very obvious by these posts that the US is at war with itself. The world will watch with popcorn in hand, as it is today, and witness the 2nd American Civil war followed by a Soviet style collapse. Putin, China, Iran and so many others including the now attacked long-time allies will be laughing at the impotent extinguished bully.
THIS IS MUCH CLOSER THAN ANY OF YOU REALIZE. And as close as the next financial crisis. Time to review your squirrel hunting skills. You will need them.
You keep believing you dont need the US and see what happens when Russia decides to start moving into eastern europe again!
If you back the US into a corner we come out fighting, just go asks the Japanese people what happened!
Every decade since WW2 the US has been asked to help defend a country from one of their neighbors. In the future this will not stop it will only escalate.
Trump is compromised. He hasn’t once criticized Putin, yet he repeatedly attacked long-time allies and has praised dictators around the world. The word is out, the US can no longer be trusted.
Can the US now save itself?
Holy sh*t, that’s a stupid comment, observer7.
Coming from the same idiot who believed Hillary Clinton had a “96% chance of winning the election.” Lol Yup, we all kniw how well that worked out, dont we. You obviously arent a high IQ individual.
The fact that you are whining and crying proves you arent winning. Keep crying because it makes me feel wonderful to wake up everyday knowing Trump beat Hitlery and kicked out the leftist scum with her.
How’s that NAFTA negotiation going for you these days, Canuck? Not so smug anymore, eh? Lol
Actually, Arien, I’m kinda thinkin’ that most of the world already has that attitude. Mr. Trump is making the U.S. more of an island all the time, and you know what happens to small islands in big oceans when sea levels start to rise. Oops. Was there an America [Atlantis – I meant Atlantis] in there somewhere.
Fareed Zacharia wrote a great book on The Post America World. He discusses the increasing irrelevancy of the US accelerated under Trump.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/07/30/fareeds-take-shock-in-america-gps.cnn
Bernie – You mean Fareed Zacharia, the liberal CNN hack never Trumper who has been accused of plagiarism several times ? You mean this Fareed Zacharia?…
http://www.twisted.news/2016-01-19-cnn-hack-fareed-zakaria-gleefully-celebrates-mass-death-of-white-people-paints-whites-as-suicidal-drug-addicted-alcoholics-who-deserve-to-be-eliminated.html
In fairness, Fareed Zacharia has a lot of personal experience with irrelevancy. Maybe he is a good source for such a topic!
Hmmm – “Twisted News”. Yup, it’s twisted alright.
An Opinion novel from a CNN reporter? And Fareed Zacharia nonetheless.
Why not just post something directly from Democratic Underground? It is, after all, the very latest in Progressive Totalitarian news. That might even be what Zacharia used to plagiarize his book.
You linked the FakeNews CNN? The sane guy that said there was no way Hillary Clinton would lose???
Lolololololol You really are stupid.
Wishful thinking doesnt equal reality always. I have bee, but all I hear these days is people talking obsessively about America this and that. Obviously America is not in decline since it the center of attention and Trump has been able to do whatever he wants and nobody can do anything about it but whine and cry like little girls. Lol
Sore loser syndrome is getting you down these, isnt it?
Qanon.pub
Go there and learn all about the evil Deep State.
Traitor!
Only an idiot without thoughts repeats talking points from a manipulating conman.
I’d rather the press continue to piss and moan about Trump or insist that the US is being perceived as a bully than to be taken advantage of constantly.
That’s a completely false narrative. The select few Americans 0.1% (who Trump truly represents and recently got permanent tax cuts. Not the temporary chicken feed given to the masses) who actually own 90% of all assets and outsource all your jobs, have given it to you up the backside with total abandon. And they have even convinced you to smile while they are at it.
Thank you for your insightful comment, Nancy.
So Obama’s impersonation of Neville Chamberlain for 8 years was a great strategy ? Bowing down to dictators never works.
This entire story is based on a “unnamed sources” reporting on what Trump may have said in conversation.
There isn’t any official proposed tarriff on luxury cars produced in Germany. At this point this is (at most) a threat or strategic leak in some kind of negotiation tactic. At worse it’s another media circle jerk based on an unsubstantiated report.
well, “unnamed sources”, but it resonates with all the Twitter crap emanating from Mr. Trumps fingers
“The entire story is based on unnamed sources”
Nope!
Trump HIMSELF announced it with a Tweet:
“There will be big news coming soon for our great American Autoworkers. After many decades of losing your jobs to other countries, you have waited long enough!” – and then just a few minutes later French Prez says Trump told him “the trade war will go on until no Mercs roll down 5th Ave” – and Trump made zero accusations of “Leak”. So it’s true, it’s official, it’s just not published by the GAO.
So your “unnamed sources” are getting zero pushback or “leak” charges.
“as a country stand up for what’s right”? All I’ll say is, the China fiasco with the ZTE “American bailout” and bizarre tariffs…
As Trump stood up for Ford Focus manufacturing to leave Mexico … and go to China! Yay for the American Ford workers!
Trade policy isn’t the reason Germans don’t buy many American cars. Mostly it comes down to size. Americans equate equality and worth with size, so our high end cars are BIG and our small cars are typically decontented garbage. Europeans like smaller cars so if we want to sell cars there we need to build cars they like.
Trump just likes to crap all over our allies. It would be nice if he did that to our enemies but nope, he won’t even impose the sanctions on Russia, sanctions passed by bipartisan majorities in congress. Funny that. Also funny how a weakened Germany is one of Putin’s central aims.
Very well said.
“American” cars appear in Europe in the form of locally produced Ford and Opel or Vauxhall. For some time in the past also Chrysler. Today als Jeep, produced in Italy.
Trump doesn’t understand that. Trump knows nothing about the automobile industry.
what unfair EU-US trade policies is trump trying to address? is it all about steel and aluminum?
Who voted for this clown?
Me and I’m proud damn of it!
You should be ashamed. He’s a traitor, a loud mouth, and an idiot. Trump makes Nixon look upstanding and Bill Clinton moral.
Trump will be impeached by 2020!
People like you should be put up against a wall, and not to be tickled to death.
Wow, you must be a fan of nitwits like Maxine Waters, Pelosi, Al Green and Schiff-For-Brains.
Making the US great again will take the country back to the horse and buggy, You’ll be really proud when the economy collapses. Trump declared bankruptcy personally 6 times.
I voted for him and will again in two and a half years.
To think of it. It was the easiest voting choice in my lifetime.
Lol no you won’t. He’ll be rotting in jail or hell, or getting pissed on by hookers in Moscow in 2 and half years.
You snowflakes are in for a long ride….LMAO….and it’ll be even sweeter the next round.
_vorg: Sounds like you watch too much CNN and MSNBC.
It’s a long shot, but I’m holding out hope that the Democratic Party starts caring about middle America again.
If not, 2020 will be another extremely easy decision.
Not this time, the dems are officially dead completely, after all of the horrible things they done, they are getting theirs, badly.
JFK would be spinning in his grave if he could see what the democratic party has turned into.
lol…He cares far more about womanizing…
And Ronald Reagan would be disgusted by the lying treasonous kleptocrats who are ruining this great country. And how easily the bottom feeders have been manipulated in believing that they even give a sh*t about them.
To the people how think both Republicans and Democrats actually care about the people they serve are just kidding themselves.
You really think Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush SR, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy all cared about the people of this country?
What they cared about is their agenda! That’s it!
Fellow white supremacists.
Got to love those who write ad hominem attacks. *rolls eyes*
Doesn’t matter, he lost the popular vote…
Geoff says:
“Who voted for this clown?”
Haters and low information voters.
Thank you for your insightful comment, Hillary.
I agree. Hillary is a clown.
scott3 is on the correct track. I don’t think anyone truly believes for a minute that German cars will be banned and eventually vanish. That’s just nonsense. It is the start of renegotiating how business is conducted.
So, … Andrew Jackson used those treaties to “Lowball” the Muskogee and Choctaw, right? States are totally allowed to use deception and exaggeration (scare tactics) and that’s OK with you? How would you go with the red button?
This threat has sent a clear message to all the board rooms around the world to not invest in the US due to political and economic instability. The impact of this will be reflected in the longer term that the US is NOT a reliable partner. You have seen the last European plant on US soil.
BMW is the largest auto exporter from the US. Not Ford, not GM or that Italian company FCA. In fact, not even close.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/bmw-may-source-more-us-steel-after-washington-imposed-tariffs-on-imports-118060101516_1.html
Banning the German cars is wrong. I prefer domestic brands all my life but I allow some tariffs applied to all foreign brands, even if they are assembled in the U.S. since the foreign countries do apply their own tariffs for U.S, items imported to their country.
This man is on to something! If I where king this would also be taking place!
Could be some form of a Luxury car import tax.
Like all things Trump, this is about optics. We’ll see more and more desperate measures from the man in the weeks and months ahead. You see, the bully thinks his friends, in this case a mob of voters disconnected from reality and human decency, will save him from impeachment and criminal charges. When he realizes that won’t work, he’ll take the ship down with the captain.
So you’re talking about deplorables, right Hillary?
Not sure how this dovetails with BMW and MB making lots of vehicles (and creating lots of jobs) in the US …
Separate question – speaking of 45 – wonder how the long-awaited Cadillac Beast 2 presidential limo is coming?
The new Cadillac presidential limo seems very late. It’s almost like Elon Musk was in charge of the project or something.
What’s taking Cadillac so long?
What’s taking Cadillac so long? Optics! They don’t want 45 getting out of a car with their name on it, JDN or Carlisle, or Barra.
Or maybe, they want to make it electric, so he can get out of it and call for lower mpg targets.
Or maybe, they’ve seen all those thousands of photos of Trump in his Mercedes’s and BMW-Rolls’s and decided his brand doesn’t fit the Caddy image?
This clever little idiot says BAN but really says we can agree but an import tax of say 25% is due and payable . This is the only way Cadillac can ever compete , ban the imports or tax them out . Canada is to pay 25% duty on aluminum and steel , but get this , the materials are used by US vehicle manufacturers to make more money and the steel industry is owned by a US company . A 900 % penalty/duty was slapped on our new C series aircraft for unfair competition…when no US competitor was competing in the segment ….but , when it was announced that the planes for the US marketplace were to be built in the US , it was now okay . Many jobs would be lost in Canada but who cares , right ? Did you read of Trump’s slapping tariffs on China ? A Chinese cellphone maker was a culprit and subsequently declared bankruptcy was imminent . What happened next saw the Chinese government issue a 500 million dollar gift to the Malaysian govern. where a Trump branded hotel / park was to be constructed . Afterwards Trump then declares that we must not let our friend the Chinese company go under and voids the tariff . Beating on your allies and foes , except Russia , for personal or USA interests has become the norm , what you sow , you reap ! So now it is the luxury car import the next biggie . So who will pay for the privilege and avoid the tariff , perhaps a big donation to the Republican war chest , hmmm ? Stay tuned to Sinclair news or Fox TV for the latest completely believable, biased reports , in my opinion .
+1
Wishing more people read real news like you do.
Meh. Canada’s opinion on US trade policy is just as irrelevant as Canada itself.
The US has entered into trade agreements only to watch goods produced by non participating countries get channeled through participating countries as an intermediary. There was never a crackdown in the past and now there is. I could give a hoot if that upsets progressives in Canadian media.
Trump has never advocated for free trade. He ran on fair trade, and that’s clearly where he’s going with his policy.
I’m 100% okay with that.
thank you, NAFTA, WTO and others have absolutely nothing to do with free trade and you know it.
“Canada is to pay 25% duty on aluminum and steel” — wrong!
The US consumer is to pay this 25% price increase for Canadian steel and steel from other sources. It is always the buyer who pays import tariffs, not the seller. It is not Canada, Mexico or the EU which levies an export tariff, but the US which forces its citizens to pay 25% more for imported steel. And these steel imports can’t be replaced by a snap of the finger. There are some steel qualities which the US steel industry is incapable to produce.
Mind you, being relieved of a fair competition, US steel producers will not hesitate to raise their prices.
Result: everything becomes more expensive for US consumers and US exporters which concsequently can no longer compete with their counterparts in other countries.
BTW, Canada exports nearly all her steel to the US, and half of US steel imports come from her neighbour in the north and another big chunk from the neighbor in the south.
Not clear, though, is the part of steel imports in the US local steel market.
I could not find any source which say which percentage of US steel consumption is imported.
BTW, about one half of US steel consumption goes into construction — houses and infractructure. Next is the automobile industy with 26%.
During WW2, the US considered Canadian steel and aluminium plants of high strategic importance to the war effort. An airfield was even constructed to protect a major aluminium plant.
Canada is the US’s # 1 trading partner, not China. We were part of the GM bailout in 2009 and at one point, Canada was GM’s largest shareholder. Canada conducts fair trade and currently has a deficit with the US. We have spilled blood along US soldiers in all major wars. We have welcomed Americans in our homes when planes had to be diverted to Canadian air fields on 9/11.
Now we are being told that tariffs are now imposed for national security reasons. Our aluminium and steel has been extensively used to build the US military.
As our Prime Minister said yesterday, “This is truly insulting”.
The Canadian and Americans are one people. Linguistically and culturally we form one North American people with the same national security interests. (I include Mexico, too, even though many will disagree).
The US and Canada need an open border with zero tariffs. With Brexit the UK should be included, too, since our Common Law legal system comes from England.
Trump punishes our allies yet allows Russians into the Ovel to giggle about the Comey firing. He is okay with Russian election meddling yet treats friends horribly.
Trump is an obvious trader.
He’s a narcissist and kleptocrat out to screw the US for personal gain just like his father. His latest Soviet born wife is an acknowledged personal hooker and a complete embarrassment to the role of first lady. Trump dreams of having a tower in Moscow. Is that his reward for destroying America? The evidence is mounting on this sociopath and traitor.
Never, close the borders, screw open borders, leave us alone and leave trump alone and Russia alone too, at least he’s not launching an illegal war with Russia, unlike your sorry a** bi*** killary.
Stay in your bunker, disconnect everything and never leave. Lol
“The Canadian and Americans are one people.”
Oh you are so effing wrong. Our nations are both brothers in history, but we both crave our own separate paths through time. Those paths will cross now and again in the future, but we both march independently.
Lets review the facts, shall we. We [the U.S.] saved the great European powers twice in the last century from-umm-oh yeah the Germans. After WWII, we rebuilt Europe and our former enemy Germany (West), into an industrial/financial power, including the import of all German car makes into the U.S. German cars are built in the U.S. IE: Benz, VW, BMW and few if any American cars even see the asphalt of the Autobahn, without sky-high taxes, import fees and red tape up the wazoo. Trump is awesome, the great negotiator, It’s about time we get back to business in this country. Fair is fair, Europe, China and Russia all do what is best for them, it’s time we start to do the same again. Smart business doesn’t make enemies, it makes better friends. And don’t forget this can only be good for Caddy.
Germany and the EU combined, charge a total of 27% import tarrif on American cars. We, on the other hand, charge 2.5% import tarriff on German cars.
Don’t state the facts, liberals, we know you hate that.
Go Trump, even things out.
What is so bad about evening things out
Even what out. You’re upset b/c those manufacturers didn’t try to rip off their customers by offering completely sub-par automobiles for astronomically high prices like the American luxury brands. Maybe we should ask the thousands of Americans living in America who depend on the German Car makers and manufacturers to place a roof over their heads and food on the table. I would say that’s a great place to start. As a huge GM fan I am obviously all for Cadillac to be as successful as BMW but this is not the way to do it. You don’t threaten to take away Americans livelihood to play Politics.
This would not help GM for at least 2 decades. Most German buyer’s would either make thier current car last until the wheels fell off or buy a used German car. Sure some buyers might switch over and give Cadillac a try but it would be far and few between. Most of them would not touch a GM car or any American car for that matter. If anyone would gain it would be Lexus or Cadillac.
How about eliminate tariffs totally? It’s an outdated economic strategy that needs to die. If Trump was a true free market republican he would go public with such an opinion, and push the EU to dial back tariffs. His rather reactionary approach just comes off as bumbling.
Full free trade is great if every country practices it.
That’s just not the case though. It never will be outside of textbooks or economic theory.
A more pragmatic approach to trade is a refreshing change in the US.
i think Germany puts tax on American cars ..no? most countries taxes import car ..in India i think 200%
Americans will soon not be able to afford cars. So this is a moot point.
If you tune the cable “news” down just a bit you might hear that roaring American economy outside.
CapEx is way up thanks to the latest tax policy. Hiring and wages are finally growing again. Unemployment is down. Consumer confidence is up.
This is a great time for the American economy as a whole and for automakers competing here.
And the deficit is sky high in a good economy. In the end, the deficit will kill you as the world will lose confidence in the US dollar. Things don’t matter until they do.
Abuse of credit has led Trump to bankruptcy multiple times. This time, he’s doing it with a country and his pack of imbeciles.
Currently , European Union vehicles exported to the USA pay a 2.5% tax , US vehicles exported to European Union countries pay a 10% tax. However , German factories in the USA produce about 800,000 vehicles and about half of these are exported to other countries . These German factories in the US have approx. 36,500 employees . Note , GM alone imports to the US about 700,000 vehicles , mainly from Mexico . One current estimate shows a 10 to 20% price increase per vehicle to American consumers if this tax goes through . Chew on this a while and verify facts for yourself . Who knows , I or my source could be wrong , give it a go and lay it out in this forum . Jim
BMW is the largest exporter of vehicles in the US. Far more than any other US company.
The Germans should announce tomorrow that they are closing all their US plants if this goes forward.
BTW, Trump’s choice of vehicle prior to politics was a Mercedes Maybach. Hypocrite!
Good I hope that happens! I want all foreign manufacturers to be banned from having factories in the us!
Let’s have a level playing field and see who wins!
I hope so too. Then your country will look like the world of the Walking Dead. The US can’t even manufacture a toaster without foreign components. Not a single car, not a single appliance. Wal-Mart, Staples, Amazon…. and many others would have nothing to sell. You’re an ignorant, isolated, uneducated loser for making such a statement.
Why would any functional automaker willingly walk away from massive investments in the world’s most lucrative car market?
Lucrative for now but not for long. China is the world’s largest auto market and will soon dwarf the US. Luxury brands are betting their future on it. The US is not a growth market.
The US car market is shrinking because the US citizens income has not grown in decades. China’s car market is growing because because China’s jobs and income are growing. Growing car market depends upon growing jobs and income.
I try to avoid all the noise coming from both sides. I just look at whats been accomplished.
1. Neal Gorsuch – As a pro-second amendment person, I really liked this pick.
2. Tax Reform – I got an extra $200 a month in my paycheck. That might be crumbs to some elite congresswoman but not to me.
3. Embassy move to Jerusalem – 5 presidents said they would make the move; only one had the guts to do it.
4. Iran Treaty – There is no way that treaty was going to keep Iran form getting nukes. Who thinks paying your enemy to be nice would ever work?
5. Hostage Release – Obama pays $400 million for the release of hostages held in Iran which was then used to fund terror groups. Trump gets 3 out of N. Korea with hard line negotiation.
6. North Korea – We don’t know what will happen on June 12 but it looks a whole lot better than what the past 30 years of effort looked like.
Its not all good. I actually think the republicans should have tried to apply fixes too Obamacare rather than just throw it away. Was not fond of some of the EPA regulations that were rolled back. I think I’d give Trump a B-.
Those 3 US people released from prison in North Korea were not hostages.
And releasing them was a cheap give away for the Koreans. It flattered the self-delusion of the US government and actually saved resources for the Koreans — they do no longer haver to feed them and the transport back home was even taken up by the US government.
I’m sure the children and wives of the guys released didn’t think of it as a cheap give away. Letting your hatred of Trump cloud positive events is un-american. 3 Americans released from a N. Korean prison should be celebrated no matter your political affiliation.
How many more Americans will be detained by this NK regime despite travel ban? Even Trump knows there too many financial consequences with China to follow through with a secret Seoul evacuation and covert NK regime change operation…
Thats right. That’s why the Trump administration is having talks with N. Korea on June 12th to create a plan for to denuclearize instead of sending cruise missiles. I don’t think anyone wants a war with N. Korea.
Denuclearization will not stop further Americans from being detained…All out war and a convert covert regime change are two separate things…They have deep underground bunkers which makes cruise missiles pointless anyways…
Yes and North Korea has been getting ready for this asymmetrical war for nearly 70 years. They can destroy multiple cities in the South in 20 minutes. Like Irak and Afghanistan, this war can’t be won from the air and like the former 2 can easily be lost.
For the North Korean regime the release of these three prisoners was a cheap give away.
They were not even a bargaining chip in the dealing with POTUS Trump.
As to prisoners — I think everybody should be free. Think of those in US prisons. In no other country is such a high percentage of the population behind bars. And an overproportional percentage of poor, Blacks and Hispanics.
Let them free, and you make millions of families happy.
And EPA regulations being “rolled back” — you think it good not to have safe and healthy drinking water?
Flint is only the tip of the iceberg.
I don’t understand your reply. I said I didn’t like the EPA regulations being removed.
More “clever” strategy from the king of bluster designed to impress his worshippers.
Joe B. says:
“More “clever” strategy from the king of bluster designed to impress his worshippers.”
Red meat for the base. Midterms.
The religious right who believe in fairy tales are the same people who support Trump’s false hope and empty promises. All these people believe without evidence or facts.
This is not a question as if this is good or bad for GM but the question; what of the thousands of U.S. Citizens who work at the BMW and Mercedes Benz manufacturing plants and dealerships right here in the U.S. and rely on those jobs as a source of income to support their families as well as the towns who rely on these plants to support their economy, GM themselves should be very familiar with how that goes; so I certainly don’t understand what good they would see in any of this. If this individual in the White House seals the deal with stopping these cars from being imported to the United State, what is in place for those thousands of workers when the plants and the dealerships finally have to close??…..Nothing perhaps?..that sounds about right!
Think about what you are saying.
How would a tarriff on German imports be applied to anything made in the US? It wouldn’t.
And that’s assuming the news report is even remotely accurate.
Trump is just a con man nothing more nothing less.
That con man deserves a Nobel prize if he can successfully broker peace on the Korean Peninsula.
There already is peace.
In Korea? The USofA is still in a state of war with North Korea (and China, for that matter), keeps 28,500 troops permanently stationed in South Korea and holds every year military exercises for a continuation of that war, where exercises to amphibian landings from sea are an important part of (which would not be necessary for a defense).
Bringing this war to an official end would be imporant today, and that comprises the complete withdrawal of US troops from Korea. At best from Okinawa and from Guam, too.
Consider the fact that the Korean War was only for the first 4 months after June 25, 1950 an interkorean war, for the rest it was a war between the USA and China, and the USA did not win it. They had to agree to a ceasefire which is still in place today. China revolutionized herself during that war, and with those changes created the conditions for having become the second most important economic power in today’s world (btw interesting reading: the book by Shen Zhihua on Mao, Stalin, and the Korean War, published also in english translation by Routledge in London).
Other interested partners are Japan, which has ruled and oppressed Korea from 1895 to 1945 as the colonial master, and Russia, which was the occupying power in the North of Korea and withdrew completely to the difference of USA, and which has a common land border with Korea, even if only 50 km long; a railway line from Vladivostok goes into Korea over that border.
Everything you stated is correct. The only thing Trump has achieved so far is legitimize a dictator and now hosting his sidekick in the oval office who is responsible for running Goulags and sending 10’s of thousands of people to their deaths. In essence, North Korea has already won and given up nothing. The Conman is being played.
Worst of all, he’s attacking allies and defending dictators all around the world.
Which dictator do you mean?
Syngman Rhee?
Park Chun-hee?
Chun do-hwan?
Those were the three bloody dictators imposed by the US onto the Korean people in the South of the country. Up to 1987, when the Korean working class had become too strong to further endure dictatorship.
While being still hot air, this idea of prohibiting the sale of “German luxury cars” smells the foul emanations from D.J. Trump.
What does it mean?
1st: GM and Ford no longer need to make efforts to be at par with the European competitors, and can be content with offerening shitty cars[*] — as monopolist in a cage you don’t have to care about competion. GM could lay off half of the thousands of engineers in the Warren development center — who needs development when one is shielded off from any competition?
2nd: This supposed Trump message is “Hey, US people! I put you in a cage so that you are protected from outside predators! Don’t think that I am your prison ward, I will just protect you from every outside influence, like newspapers, TV stations and Internet messages. Faschist ruled Germany failed in this, but USA will succeed? Orwell rulez!”
BTW, what makes a car a “German car”? What makes it a “luxury car”?
Will the Buick Regal be prohibited by this Trumpist nonsense?
Is the BMW X3, produced only in the US a “German car”?
Would German companies have to shut down their US factories and lay off thousands (tens of thousands with all the sales and service outlets) workers?
Trump recognized that the US empire is in decline, and sketches a strategy to reverse this by force and threats with force, including militäry destructive wars. 1953 ended the first war which the USA has not won. 1975 the first war which the USA has lost. All efforts by the US neocons since the fall of the Berlin Wall to bomb the world into a “new American century” have failed. Trump’s increased threat with the 3rd World War can only result in the annihilation of human life or even every organic life on this planet, but it can’t reverse the decline of the US empire. What goes up will come down. This is a law of nature, which nobody and nothing can escape.
The USA sucks up goods from around the world, but pays only with debt certificates. China is the largest creditor of the USA. Think about what would happen if China would try to exchange the US debt certificates into actual material value…
[*] this is not to say that GM or Ford actually DO produce shitty cars. Please don’t misunderstand
wont do shit for Cadillac. most German luxury buyers wouldn’t be caught dead in an American car. this wont happen. its just more bullshit bully pillow talk from Mango Mussolini’s trap. let him ban the sales of german cars. the thousands of americans who live in those rancid red states that build these cars will be thrilled.
The trade imbalance goes way back.
I remember wondering, when I was a relative kid, and the US routed Iraq out of Kuwait during Desert Storm …
Iraq destroyed Kuwaiti Airlines fleet.
So Kuwait replaced their fleet with Airbus, not Boeing.
I’m not saying ‘we’ll save you if you buy our stuff’ – Kuwait puts themselves in the crosshairs by allowing the US to have a big military airbase there.
But how about a little something for the effort (Caddyshack reference).
Seems 45 goes in swinging, and things settle down to a somewhat reasonable solution.
Trump said of wanting a fair deal, Germany charges 25-percent tariffs on all US goods sold in their country while the United States only charges a 5-percent tax; Trump just increased US tariffs to match what countries in the EU charges.. it’s up to the EU to decide whether to be fair.
Two errors in one:
1st: Germany charges no tariffs. The EU (European Union) chargers import tariffs, not the single memger states.
2nd: The percentage varies according to the type of merchandise.
For motor vehicles it is 10% according to my knowledge.
3rd: The US charges the famous “Chicken-Tax” customs tariff of 25% on commercial vehicles.
General:
EU and USA had negotiated the TTIP which would have created a transatlantic free trade zone, but one of Trumps first actions as POTUS was to give up on it.
(TTIP = Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership).
TTIP met big resistance in Europe, especially because it is a secret treaty which no simple citizen, not even members of parliament were allowed to read and study, secondly because it established extra-legal courts of arbitration were foreign companies would have the right to challenge the sovereign right of individual country to pass legislation which is seen not in the interest of the interested foreign company.
@Omegatalon: get your facts right!
He doesn’t want to ban German cars. He just wants people to pay more for them via tariffs and possibly think twice about purchase because of it.
What really annoys Trump is the fact that a number of the countries who are members of NATO are not willing to spend 2-percent of their GDP on Defense as required in the charter which means the burden falls on the taxpayers of the United States.
POTUS Trump acts is if NATO is a corporation and he is the 100% owner.
He talks about this 2% nonsense for war preprations as if this were money owed to his bank account.