EU and the USA agree on a 15 percent tariff on cars and pharmaceuticals

Cars and medicines from the EU will be subject to a 15 percent tariff in the USA.

This is stated in a joint statement from the EU and the USA, outlining several details about the trade agreement they reached in July.

At that time, it was stated that, as a general rule, a 15 percent tariff would be paid in the USA on European goods.

Since then, the two parties have continued negotiations on how the trade agreement should look in more detail, resulting in a 3.5-page long joint statement.

The EU’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, emphasizes, among other things, that the automotive industry and the pharmaceutical sector will benefit from the trade agreement.

“It is a serious, strategic agreement, and we fully support it. A wide range of sectors, including strategic industries such as cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and timber, will benefit from it,” he says.

Conversely, it has not been possible to reach an agreement that wine produced in the EU could be exempt from tariffs, according to Sefcovic.

But there may be an agreement for wine and spirits at a later time, he says.

“Unfortunately, we did not succeed on this point. But the doors are not closed forever,” says the trade commissioner.

“I can tell you that there is a clear ambition in the EU Commission to get this on the negotiating table,” he also says according to Reuters.

Neither is the digital sector part of the agreement outlined in the joint statement, adds Maros Sefcovic.

The statement also indicates that the EU has committed to removing all tariffs on American industrial products.

At the same time, a wide range of food products produced in the USA will have better access to being sold in the EU, it states.

Today, European cars are subject to a 27.5 percent tariff in the USA. The lower tariff of 15 percent will only take effect when the EU presents specific legislation to remove tariffs on American goods, writes Reuters.

Neither will the 15 percent tariff on medicines and semiconductors take effect immediately.

The USA is currently investigating what impact the import of medicines and semiconductors – used in electronics – has on the country’s national security.

Only when these investigations are complete will the USA present tariff rates for those products.

If they are produced in the EU, there will be a maximum tariff of 15 percent. Today, no or only limited tariffs are applied to medicines and semiconductors.

The President of the USA has repeatedly threatened to impose high tariffs on medicines to encourage companies to move their production to the USA.

/ritzau/AFP