German Auto Lobby Wants Biden to Eliminate U.S. Trade Restrictions

Germany is eager to see the United States abolish trade barriers implemented by President Donald Trump now that it looks like Joe Biden has won the 2020 election. While that could all be undone by the sudden influx of legal actions taken by the Trump campaign as presumptive evidence of election impropriety streams in, Germany would still like to get the ball rolling on trade with the Democrats.

The nation’s automotive industry is petitioning leadership in the U.S. and European Union to align technical/regulatory standards and minimize the existing trade barriers. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (Verband der Automobilindustrie) or VDA has already endorsed the proposal with the lobby group’s president confirming its position in a recent webcast hosted by the Frankfurt business media club ICFW (Internationale Club Frankfurter Wirtschaftsjournalisten).

VDA President Hildegard Müller (who sits on the board of 9 industrial firms) supports both sides abolishing tariffs entirely and believes Biden might be receptive toward reverting trade policies back to how they were before 2016. Considering that the Biden administration has already made announcements that it would immediately overturn numerous executive orders introduced by Trump, it certainly seems possible.

According to Bloomberg, Müller also hinted that Europe would likely need to make changes in order to give the U.S. a fair shake — though it was unclear what that would entail beyond nixing the aforementioned tariffs.

Trump has been extremely critical of Europe — and Germany in particular — for failing to push back against Chinese trade rules he claimed were broadly unfair to the West. He has also been harsh on German imports suggesting he might begin issuing automotive tariffs if economic parity wasn’t achieved in Europe. In response, German automakers promised increased investments into facilities based in the United States. Meanwhile, Germany itself is confronting serious difficulties due to the nation’s extremely high energy and labor costs. VDA said this issue was made worse by German bureaucracy and oversight from the regulation heavy European Commission.