US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer condemns retaliatory tariffs from EU and other WTO members in a statement released overnight. He claimed that the US actions on steel and aluminum tariffs were “wholly legitimate and fully justified”. But the EU has concocted a groundless legal theory to justify immediate tariffs on U.S. exports.
Lighthizer went further to say that “these retaliatory tariffs underscore the complete hypocrisy that governs so much of the global trading system.” According to him, the EU and others claimed to champion the WTO but “their recent tariffs prove that they simply ignore WTO rules whenever doing so is convenient.”
Also, “when the EU and others falsely assert the U.S. steel and aluminum duties are safeguard measures, and impose retaliatory duties under this pretense, they do great damage to the multilateral trading system. Indeed, they show that they are willing to distort WTO rules to mean whatever they want, whenever they want.”
In short, the US is ready to go for auto tariffs.
