Mercedes sees itself as 'sounding board' in tariff talks, CEO tells newspaper
BERLIN, June 5 (Reuters) - Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE), opens new tab views itself as a "sounding board" that contributes ideas in tariff negotiations between the European Union and the United States, CEO Ola Kaellenius told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Thursday.
"As a company, we hold talks with political decision-makers – in the EU as well as in China and the US," said Kaellenius.
"However, negotiations take place at EU level because trade policy falls within the EU's remit. We are available as a sounding board, contributing ideas and presenting scenarios showing how certain decisions would affect us," he added.
Mercedes-Benz, as well as BMW (BMWG.DE), opens new tab and Volkswagen , are in talks with Washington over a possible import tariff deal, sources told Reuters late last month.
Under one proposal on the table, German carmakers would get credits for cars they export from the United States, which could then be deducted from tariffs, one of the sources said.
Kaellenius' interview was published hours before Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, will hold his first face-to-face talks with U.S. President Donald Trump as Europe seeks to stave off looming U.S. tariffs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump sends Bessent and Lutnick to haggle with Chinese on tariff war after Xi chat
Three members of Donald Trump's cabinet will meet with Chinese officials in London on Monday in an effort to deescalate or resolve the unprovoked trade war which Trump started with Beijing two months ago. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was 'pleased to announce' that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick would travel to London along with U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer for a sit-down with 'Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal.' He added: 'The meeting should go very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter!'
Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Concern over mass migration is terrorist ideology, says Prevent
Lord Young suggested the definition could even capture Mr Jenrick, the former immigration minister, who has previously warned that 'excessive, uncontrolled migration threatens to cannibalise the compassion of the British public.' Senior Labour politicians could also fall within the scope of the definition, he claimed. Lord Young cited Sir Keir's recent statement that without fair immigration rules, 'we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.' There are growing fears that police are wrongly seeking to limit free speech. The Telegraph disclosed last month that Julian Foulkes, a retired police officer, was arrested and detained over a social media post warning about the threat of anti-Semitism. Officers who conducted a search of his house described a collection of books by authors such as Mr Murray as 'very Brexity'. Mr Foulkes later received an apology and £20,000 compensation. Last year, Allison Pearson, the Telegraph columnist, was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests. The Telegraph has also covered the case of Hamit Koskun, who was fined this week for burning a Koran. It led Mr Jenrick to accuse the courts of reviving blasphemy law. Lord Young said the course material appeared to reflect a shift in the Prevent approach from focusing on conduct – such as acquiring weapons or inciting violence – to 'treating ideology itself as a risk indicator, encompassing belief, alignment or political attitude'. He said the FSU had already had to support members referred to Prevent, including a 24-year-old autistic man whose social worker reported that he had been viewing 'offensive and anti-trans' websites and 'focusing on lots of Right-wing dark comedy'. Prevent referral could stain person's name Even if a person was subsequently deemed to require 'no further action', their name would risk remaining on police and other databases that could be accessed by MI5, MI6, the Home Office, Border Force, HMRC, the Charity Commission and local safeguarding teams. Lord Young said: 'There are multiple documented cases in which individuals referred to Prevent – despite not meeting the threshold for further action – suffered serious and lasting consequences simply because their names were logged in the system.' The row comes despite a report by Sir William Shawcross, a former independent reviewer of Prevent, which criticised the way that mainstream literature and even a former Cabinet minister had been described as 'cultural nationalists' by a Home Office research unit on extremism. The minister was later revealed as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. Sir William recommended that Prevent must be 'consistent in the threshold that it applies across ideologies to ensure a proportionate and effective response.' He added that there were major failings with Prevent more broadly, including that it wrongly funnelled money to extremist organisations and had repeatedly failed to identify people who went on to carry out terrorist attacks. Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said: 'It is a very difficult job that the Home Office has to do, but maybe they should do a careful bit of editing so that people who are close to the political mainstream are not caught up in it.' A former government adviser said the 'cultural nationalism' definition was 'pretty shoddy'. 'Agencies like counter-terrorism police and MI5 are much more rigorous in their classifications,' they said. 'We are talking about Right-wing extremists, who are often neo-Nazis. It undermines the seriousness of what counter-extremism is all about.' Professor Ian Acheson, a former government adviser on extremism, said: 'We are now beginning to see the consequences of a referral mechanism built on training like this which skews away from suspicion by conduct to the mere possession of beliefs that are perfectly legitimate but regarded by Prevent policy wonks as 'problematic.''
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Every time Nigel Farage has fallen out with his colleagues
Nigel Farage's bust-up with Zia Yusuf is only the latest in a string of extraordinary sackings, resignations and break-ups in his political career. Mr Yusuf, the former Reform UK chairman, quit on Thursday following a disagreement over a Reform MP's call for a burka ban. But Mr Farage has fallen out with multiple senior figures in the party and its predecessors, Ukip and the Brexit Party. Godfrey Bloom Nigel Farage was forced to suspend the Ukip party whip from economist Godfrey Bloom after he described women at a party conference in 2013 as 'sluts'. Mr Bloom also hit journalist Michael Crick over the head with the conference brochure. Mr Farage, furious that one of his conference speeches had been overshadowed, said: 'We can't put up with it. We can't have any one individual, however fun or flamboyant or entertaining or amusing they are, we cannot have any one individual destroying Ukip's national conference and that is what he's done today.' Douglas Carswell Douglas Carswell was Ukip's first MP after defecting from the Conservatives in 2014. He won the Clacton seat twice for the party but soon fell out with Mr Farage, who accused him of trying to block efforts to put him in the House of Lords. The party leader branded Mr Carswell a 'Tory party posh boy' and accused him of trying to 'undermine everything we've stood for for a very long time'. Mr Carswell quit Ukip at the 2017 election to stand as an independent, but he lost to the Conservatives. Suzanne Evans Suzanne Evans was the most senior woman in Ukip but fell out with Mr Farage over his leadership style in 2015. She called for two of the Ukip leader's advisers to resign and praised Patrick O'Flynn, economy spokesman, after he accused Mr Farage of being 'snarling and aggressive'. Ms Evans later went on TV to say Mr Farage was seen as 'very divisive' – a move that saw her sacked and party officials told not to have any further contact with her. Diane James Diane James was elected leader of Ukip in 2016 after Mr Farage quit in the wake of the Brexit referendum victory. But within three weeks, he was back, after senior party figures refused to accept her as leader. The story of Mr Farage's role in Ms James' departure is not fully understood. Ben Habib After leaving Ukip in 2018, Mr Farage set up the Brexit Party, which campaigned for a final ending of ties with the EU, and later Reform UK. Its co-deputy leader was Ben Habib but he was sacked soon after last year's general election. He later quit Reform, saying Mr Farage needed to learn that the party 'should not be controlled by one man'. Asked what impact his departure would have, Mr Farage said: 'None whatsoever.' Rupert Lowe Businessman Rupert Lowe was one of five Reform MPs elected last year – but his ego clashed with that of Mr Farage. After he accused Mr Farage in an interview of acting like a 'messiah', Mr Lowe lost the party whip and was reported to police over allegations he had physically threatened Zia Yusuf, then party chairman. Mr Lowe said at the time: 'I am 67 years old, and I have a 67-year-long unblemished record with the law. These are false allegations, designed to maliciously smear my name and ruin my reputation after I dared to bruise [Nigel] Farage's ego.' A party source told The Telegraph: 'This is what happens when you mess with Nigel.'
