The United States may abandon its efforts to slap tariffs on imported cars after some 'very good conversations' with auto companies in the European Union and Japan, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said on Sunday.
"Our hope is that the negotiations we've been having with individual companies about their capital investment plans will bear enough fruit that it may not be necessary" to launch a dubbed Section 232 investigation, Ross said in an interview with Bloomberg Television."We've had very good conversations with our European friends, with our Japanese friends, with our Korean friends", the Secretary added while speaking in Bangkok on the margins of the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The war of tariffs between the US and the European Union erupted last year when US President Donald Trump imposed higher taxes on steel and aluminum imports. Europe fought back by slapping counter-tariffs on a number of goods from the United States.
In July 2018, Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to scrap all tariffs, establish zero non-tariff barriers, and abandon subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.