Thousands of vehicles sit idle at EU port as Trump's tariffs leave their mark
Figures released by the port show a 15.9% drop in the transport of new passenger cars and vans to the US in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, with a sharp decline emerging in May – one month after the US president announced his 'liberation day' tariffs.
Exports of trucks and what they call 'high and heavy equipment' is down by almost a third at 31.5%.
This category includes tractors and construction vehicles, with the fall off in transatlantic movements perhaps reflecting the impact a 25% tariff would have on vehicles that can cost more than $100,000 (£74,430).
The port is one of the world's largest car transport hubs, shipping more than 3m vehicles around the world in 2024.
'The outlook for the second half of the year remains uncertain. Much will depend on whether a trade agreement between the EU and the US can be reached by 1 August,' the port said in a statement.
European carmakers from Volkswagen to Volvo had been hoping that a deal would have been sealed last week after Trump's original deadline for a tariff deal with the EU was due to expire.
Before Trump arrived in the White House they paid a 2.5% tariff on exports but since April they are being charged an extra 25%, adding tens of thousands of dollars to the price of a family-sized car in the US.
Ports across Europe have been tested by Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, the port congestion caused by container shortages in 2024, with congestion a widespread issue across all northern ports, said Justin Atkin, the UK and Ireland port representative of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
Compared with Brexit, the tariff impact has been 'more of an instant shock' he said.
'With the pandemic, we had lockdown, then we were out of lockdown, then back into lockdown, and people got used to managing it after being unprepared. Whereas here … people have talked about tariffs in the build up [to Trump] but I don't think anyone expected the level and the severity of the instantaneous action.'
The port couldn't put a figure on the number of cars waiting to be transported but said it was in the thousands.
Sign up to Business Today
Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning
after newsletter promotion
Atkin said there was also evidence of Chinese cars being stockpiled at the port, which may reflect a diversion of trade from the US with Beijing grappling with tariff barriers.
The tariff crisis combined with the conflict in the Red Sea and the increased size of ships in global fleets extending the docking time at the port to up to eight days instead of the usual five, has meant parking space for cars and containers is under pressure.
The US is the Port of Antwerp-Bruges's second biggest trading partner after the UK and there is evidence that US exporters are also front-loading cargo to try to avoid any retaliatory tariffs the EU may impose in the event of a trade war.
In the first half of the year, inbound cargo from the US increased by 17% with higher volumes of liquefied natural gas.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump team officially ends Musk's ‘five things' DOGE email that drew ire and led to thousands of resignations
The Trump administration has ditched an Elon Musk–mandated program requiring federal employees to share five workplace accomplishments every week, according to a new memo. When the billionaire was at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency before his relationship with President Donald Trump imploded in early June, his short-lived initiative prompted widespread outrage among employees and management at federal agencies. Federal workers were ordered to email the Office of Personnel Management as part of a drive to drastically cut staff numbers. Workers who did not comply were threatened with termination. Now the federal human resources agency has informed workers that they no longer need to comply, Reuters first reported. 'At OPM, we believe that managers are accountable to staying informed about what their team members are working on and have many other existing tools to do so,' the agency's director Scott Kupor said in a statement, according to the outlet. Kupor, who took up the role at the agency in July, reportedly added that the agency would no longer be using the process internally, after he described it as 'not efficient' and 'very manual.' It was 'something that we should look at and see, like, are we getting the value out of it that at least the people who put it in place thought they were,' he said last month. The move is an indicator that the Trump administration is looking to leave the Musk–DOGE era in the past, as the tech mogul has proved increasingly unpopular following his time in government. Musk's email ultimatum went down like a lead balloon with other department heads, including FBI director Kash Patel, who sent his own email to employees to clarify where the bureau stood. 'FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,' Patel wrote, according to an NBC report at the time. 'When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.' The State Department and the Justice Department also told staff to hold off on responding to Musk's ultimatum when the email landed in inboxes earlier this year. After backlash, Musk said the emails were a way of checking if employees 'had a pulse.' 'This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email,' Musk said. 'This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don't get it yet, but they will.' The Musk–Trump bromance came to an explosive end after the Tesla CEO's time as a special government employee expired at the end of May. After staging a bizarre farewell press conference in the Oval Office, Musk began to publicly lash out at Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.' Trump said that Musk was 'wearing thin' as the men traded blows on their respective social media platforms. Their feud culminated in Musk posting, without evidence: 'Time to drop the really big bomb. @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' He later deleted the post.
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump administration cuts New York City's anti-terrorism funding days after skyscraper attack
The Trump administration said it would cut terrorism prevention funding for New York City, according to a grant notice posted days after a gunman killed four people inside a Manhattan skyscraper. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) stated in a grant notice posted on Friday that New York City would receive $64m less this year from its urban area security fund. The amount was listed in a single line of an 80-page Fema notice on the grant program. The US Congress created the program to help cities prevent terrorist attacks. 'It makes absolutely no sense, and no justification has been given to cut NY's allocation given the rise in the threat environment,' a spokesperson for the New York state division of homeland security and emergency services said in a statement on Monday afternoon. Manhattan has been the site of two attacks on high-profile corporate executives in the last year. The most recent attack came from a gunman armed with an assault-style rifle in late July, who killed four people inside an office building that houses the headquarters of the NFL and several major financial firms. New York governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, highlighted the attack in her late July letter to the US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, asking why the Trump administration had not announced the amounts each city would receive from the program this year. Fema is part of DHS. Noem's office did not respond to two messages from Reuters asking why the federal government cut New York's funding. In December 2024, the chief executive of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was gunned down on the street in Manhattan in a targeted attack. And security has been particularly tight in New York City ever since the al-Qaida terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that killed almost 3,000 people in lower Manhattan when Islamist extremists flew hijacked passenger jets into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Fema uses 'an analysis of relative risk of terrorism' to decide how much money cities will receive, according to the grant notice posted on Friday. The agency may change the amounts later, according to the notice. In 2023, the agency considered city visitor counts, population density and proximity to international borders, among other factors, to determine the totals, according to a report signed by then Fema administrator Deanne Criswell. Fema has been decreasing terrorism prevention money for New York City each year since at least fiscal year 2022. The drop is much more drastic this year at 41% year-over-year. The New York City police department has used the funding in the past to pay for the Domain Awareness System, a network of cameras, license plate readers and detection devices, according to a 2016 statement from the former mayor Bill de Blasio's office.
Reuters
2 minutes ago
- Reuters
Zelenskiy says he had 'productive' call with Trump ahead of ceasefire deadline
KYIV, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that he had had a "productive" conversation with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on ending the war, sanctions on Russia and the finalisation of a U.S.-Ukraine drone deal. "President Trump is fully informed about Russian strikes on Kyiv and other cities and communities," Zelenskiy wrote on X, referring to intensifying drone and missile attacks. Trump, who has signalled frustration with Vladimir Putin in recent weeks, has given the Russian president until August 8 to make peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions. A source in Washington said U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff would be meeting the Russian leadership in Moscow on Wednesday. Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said Trump "knows the situation along the front line," which extends for 1,000 km (620 miles) through eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine, he said, had long supported U.S. proposals for an immediate ceasefire and had proposed a number of formats to implement a halt to the fighting. "We have spoken with and proposed to Russia quiet in the skies, no missile and drone attacks and specifically no attacks on civilian infrastructure or on the energy sector," he said. "All of this has been violated by the Russians and in a very cynical fashion." Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil, although sources close to the Kremlin have told Reuters that Putin is unlikely to bow to the ultimatum. Zelenskiy said Ukraine was also ready to conclude a deal with the U.S. on the purchase of Ukrainian drones that would amount to "one of the strongest agreements". He had earlier said the deal was worth around $30 billion. Ukraine is increasingly seeking financing and investment from its foreign partners to bolster its burgeoning domestic arms industry. Zelenskiy said Kyiv's European partners had so far pledged to buy more than $1 billion in U.S. weapons for Ukraine as part of a new scheme.
