Germany’s finance minister is ‘confident’ that a US-EU trade deal will happen

The German finance minister Scholz stated that he isn’t feeling pessimistic about threats of tariffs on the car industry and confident about an EU-U.S trade deal.

Regarding a new trade deal with the European Union, President Donald Trump mentioned that the specter of car tariffs would be raised if the European nations initiate a digital tax on big U.S. tech firms.

Donald Trump’s statements tally with a similar warning from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who stated on CNBC panel in Davos this week that tariffs would emerge if EU members move forward with their digital tax plans.

“If people want to arbitrarily put taxes on our digital companies, we will consider putting taxes arbitrarily on car companies,” Mnuchin said Wednesday.

But speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Thursday, The German Finance Minister Scholz told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore that he believes a free trade agreement with the United States would be a possibility in the future.

“No, not really. I think we know that there is a need for debating about trade. In the end, we know that trade is most successful if there are not too many barriers,” he said.

(Reference: CNBC)