Europe has 'sense of panic' over securing US trade deal: Wilbur Ross
'With us solidifying both the USMCA and China phase one, we're in a much stronger negotiating position'
Commerce Secretary Wilbur says a trade deal with Europe, which President Trump has long accused of treating the U.S. unfairly in international trade, is possible in 2020.
“They have the desire to make a deal with us,” Ross told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. ”Frankly, I’ve seen a little bit of a sense of panic among some of the Europeans because they know that with us solidifying both the USMCA and China phase one, we're in a much stronger negotiating position then we’ve ever been.”
President Donald Trump delivers opening remarks at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
The Senate's signoff this month on the USMCA, Trump's overhaul of the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement, followed House approval in December after months of negotiations by Democrats, who regained a majority in the chamber in 2018.
The deal, combined with Trump's signing of an initial trade pact with Beijing, drove U.S. stock markets to new highs, and the president says he now has leeway to focus on Europe.
"I didn't want to do China and Europe at the same," Trump told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo a day earlier. While Europe has been difficult to negotiate with, he said, reaching an agreement will ultimately be "very easy because if we can't make a deal, we'll have to put at 25 percent tariffs on the cars, 20 or 25 percent."
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It's not the first time the Trump administration has dangled the threat of double-digit tariffs on European automobiles to pressure the trading bloc into making a deal, despite backlash from both automakers and government officials in states where they build cars.
John Bozella, the head of trade group Global Automakers, warned the Senate last year that the proposed tariffs would drive new-car prices up as much as $7,000 per vehicle. Automakers from Detroit-based General Motors to overseas giants like Honda and BMW, said the duties would snarl global supply chains.
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The European companies, in particular, rely on shipments of parts from their home bases to the U.S. to build cars that are sold here.
Volvo and BMW operate plants in South Carolina, while Mercedes has a factory in Alabama and Volkswagen and Nissan run sites in Tennessee, all states that backed Trump in the 2016 election.
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Ross said he believes trade talks can produce a deal before such duties are needed.
"The president simply said this is, 'If it fails,' where our working assumption is it will not fail and that we will make a deal with them," the commerce chief said.