Spotlight: EU trade commissioner presses U.S. to scrap tariffs on industrial goods

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said here Thursday the United States should remove tariffs on European industrial goods, including vehicles, so as to build trust in the process of resolving the trade disputes between the two sides.

Addressing the "2019 International Trade Update" event at Georgetown Law School, Malmstrom said there is a lack of trust between Washington and Brussels, warning against the notion that Europe is a security threat to the United States.

"We hope we can agree to do away with tariffs on industrial goods from both sides," she said, adding "this would be important economically, but also rebuild trust between us."

The commissioner said Europe "was seriously offended" by the tariffs the United States imposed on the bloc's steel and aluminum products.

"We do not consider that our exports are a security threat to the U.S.," Malmstrom said, adding that EU officials "are carefully watching" U.S. President Donald Trump's decision on whether to levy import duties on European cars and car parts.

Based on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a U.S. domestic law, the U.S. Department of Commerce launched an investigation last May to determine whether imported cars and car parts pose a national security threat.

During a visit to Washington last July, European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker and Trump agreed to set up an executive working group to address bilateral trade spat. They vowed to "work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods."

Chairing the group from the EU side, Malmstrom has since come to the U.S. capital several times for talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

The U.S. Department of Commerce submitted to Trump a report related to the car imports probe in mid-February. Trump said days after receiving the document that imposing the auto tariffs remains an option.

"We're trying to make a deal, they are very tough to make a deal with," the president said of the EU when speaking to reporters at the White House. "If we don't make a deal, we'll do the tariffs."

Trump has 90 days since the submission of the report to decide whether to implement those punitive tariffs.

Malmstrom told the Georgetown event the fact that over 7 million U.S. jobs are supported by EU trade and investment shows how trade can lead to win-win results.

"Along with these wins come complications," she said. "Rules of origin, shifts in manufacturing, more competition. And so far I am only talking about goods!"

The European trade chief said international trade issues "become very complicated indeed" when things like services, data transfers and geopolitics are taken into consideration.

"As advocates of free and open trade, we believe the work is worth it -- and we have a responsibility to stand up and speak out," she said, rebuking those who she said "are intimidated by the complexity."

On preserving and improving the multilateral trading system, Malmstrom stressed in particular the need to engage China in reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"It is important to realize that China has as much interest in making progress as anyone else," she said.