US President Donald Trump has announced that his country will introduce 25 percent tariffs on car imports from the European Union during his pre-election campaign.
"If that happens, it won't be good news for world trade, not only for European trade but also for American trade because I expect the EU to take retaliatory measures. I don't think that this spiral will bring anything positive to anybody and I am in favour of what was agreed - that tariffs would be zero," said the Economy Minister Peter Žiga (Smer-SD) after Wednesday's Cabinet meeting in response to statements by the US President.
"It is worth noting that car exports to the US represent a significantly higher portion of Slovak GDP than that of any other EU country, so it will have a negative impact on the Slovak economy," reacted Martin Klus, Freedom and Solidarity opposition party team leader for foreign policy and the political system. However, analyst Martin Jesný from the Industry Revue magazine said that the measures would not necessarily have a great impact on Slovak market since only Volkswagen Slovakia exports its domestic production to the USA, sending about every fifth car there. "The effect of a higher duty would not be apparent immediately. A certain drop in production for both the manufacturer and the suppliers would obviously occur. But it will not be dramatic. In particular, SUVs are being exported to more solvent customers who are not so focused on the final price of the car," explained Jesný, who does not exclude European retaliation. The Institute of Financial Policy calculated the impact on Slovak GDP as ranging from 0.1 to 0.2%.
The Slovak Ministry of Economy has not yet received the official statement of the US party on the introduction of tariffs. The economy minister views President Trump's current utterances as only statements within a pre-election campaign. "So we'll comment on it only when it comes out as an official position, and we'll provide statements along with other EU countries," said the minister. He wants to discuss the Slovak positions with our most important business partners such as Germany or France. He announced that he would travel to Germany next week to meet with Economy Minister, Peter Altmaier, to look for a common approach in this matter. At the same time, he would like to invite him to a meeting of the V4 economy ministers, which could take place in the autumn.
