President Donald Trump is hoping to block German luxury carmakers from the vast U.S. market. Who cares if the exclusive report by German magazine WirtschaftsWoche is true. Do you see his play here?
The report from the weekly business magazine cited several unnamed U.S. and European sources for the said exclusive story. The report also said that Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron last month that it was his aim to stop Mercedes-Benz models from driving down Fifth Avenue in New York.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trump to impose total US ban on luxury German cars: report <a href="https://t.co/My65Dqeewj">https://t.co/My65Dqeewj</a> <a href="https://t.co/xmDPftqKh3">pic.twitter.com/xmDPftqKh3</a></p>— The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1002267485607989248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is the German magazine article that reports Trump told Macron he wants to ban the import of German luxury cars. <a href="https://t.co/lh6pATxsUt">https://t.co/lh6pATxsUt</a></p>— Timothy Aeppel (@TimAeppel) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimAeppel/status/1002190027995181056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The report, however, didn’t provide further details on the policies that would be used to ban the premium carmakers effectively.
Shares of Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen traded lower shortly after said report came out on Thursday. German automakers led the losses during mid-morning deals.
The report comes lonely less than two weeks since the U.S. Department of Commerce launched a probe into automobile imports to establish whether “they threaten to impair the national security of the U.S.” A similar national security argument was invoked when the Trump administration imposed steep tariffs on aluminum and steel imports in March.
Trump was quoted before as “If you go down Fifth Avenue, everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of their house. Isn’t that the case? The fact is that…there is no reciprocity. How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany?”
There are several German automakers which have plants in the country, including Mercedes Benz in Alabama and BMW in South Carolina.
It is not clear if Trump’s tweet a week ago is any hint of the proposed ban.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">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!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/999278498182258688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The White House has not commented on the German magazine report about the ban.
Source:
http://fortune.com/2018/05/31/trump-mercedes-benz-german-car-ban/
Twitter: #MAGA #KeepAmericaGreat! #Germany #BanOnGermanLuxuryCars #AmericaFirst #Trump
stable genius kicking ass, 6 1/2 years of winning to go, praise kek
That's fine. There's nothing good left in the German car market anyway. BMW inspires no feelings anymore, and Mercedes need the block rebuilt after 100,000 miles. GM can rebadge the few good cars Opel still makes.
27659 must be paying too many taxes. Check your bank account next year buddy. We'll be here.
good