Volvo CEO wants EU to cut 'unnecessary' auto tariffs to defuse Trump threat
Brussels, along with representatives from the auto industry, has spent months trying to persuade Washington to lower its 27.5% tariff on imports of European cars.
"If Europe is for free trade, we should be the ones showing the way and going down to very low tariffs first," Hakan Samuelsson said after the company reported second-quarter earnings.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on European Union auto imports to 30% from August 1, increasing pressure on the bloc to strike a deal.
Before Trump's tenure, the U.S. had a 2.5% tariff on European-made cars, while the EU had a 10% duty on vehicles imported from the U.S, which Samuelsson previously said was unfair.
"I think it's absolutely unnecessary, the European car industry definitely does not need to have any protection from American auto builders," he told Reuters.
Volvo Cars, majority-owned by China's Geely Holding (GEELY.UL), is one of the most exposed European automakers to U.S. tariffs as the bulk of its cars sold there are imported from Europe.
Volvo announced late Wednesday that it would start U.S. production in late 2026 of its best-selling model, the hybrid XC60 as a way to mitigate the tariffs.
Currently, its South Carolina plant only produces the Polestar 3 and electric vehicle model EX90 which has struggled to gain traction with U.S. consumers. Volvo has also started slimming down its product offering in the U.S., Reuters reported on Wednesday.
"These are the measures we have control over, rather than when it comes to tariffs we can only have an opinion like everybody else," Samuelsson said.
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After the two E Jean Carroll trials in which Trump was found liable for defaming her by claiming she was lying about his sexual assault, the hush-money payments to silence Stormy Daniels for her sexual relationship with him, and numerous credible reports of dozens of women who have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by Trump, a poll in the fall of 2024 conducted by a conservative thinktank, the American Enterprise Institute, showed that only 5% of Trump voters 'believe he did commit sexual assault'. E Jean Carroll told me that a number of women have come to her to relate similar assaults, but do not want to become public figures out of fear of retribution. For Maga, and Republicans, if there is any distinction, these stories are unworthy of attention. They sanitize and dismiss such predations, while claims of child molestation incite them. Justifying a sexual libertine like Trump, they have held him up as a white knight avenger against pedophiles, remade him into a purifying figure, the defender of the innocent. Since Bondi issued her statement that the Epstein 'client list' did not exist, Trump's attempts to stamp out the flames have become more frenetic. He went from urging his supporters to move on to telling them to get lost. His first remark was to chide a reporter who asked about it: 'I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success, and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.' Trump got more frustrated. 'For years, it's Epstein, over and over again,' Trump posted on Truth Social, blaming the files on Democrats. 'Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.' It was 'all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein'. Trump tried to rally his base. 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals'?' Trump posted. 'They are all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!' Trump reportedly phoned Charlie Kirk, the head of Turning Point USA, which had served as a forum for criticism of his handling of the Epstein affair, to quiet him. The glib talkshow host announced: 'I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being.' As promised, Kirk shut up, but the Maga chorus kept chirping. Enraged, Trump posted on 16 July that the 'new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker … Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats' work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!' At a bilateral meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, Trump lashed out at 'stupid Republicans'. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, invariably a loyal soldier, but who felt forced to respond to the disturbance of the base, called for an investigation. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, asked that Ghislaine Maxwell appear as a witness. Do they think an inquiry would not come to focus on the evidence perhaps in the FBI's possession of Trump's gamey relationship with Epstein, rather than the mythical 'client list'? Under the stress of the Epstein controversy that will not disappear at Trump's command, the unpopularity of his One Big Beautiful Bill, the public's rejection of his brutal deportation methods, and the weakening of the economy as a result of his mad tariffs, Trump is becoming more unhinged, speaking openly of firing the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who, unlike Epstein, is a live target. Crashing the economy might serve as a temporary distraction. Then, in a fit of retributive pique, his administration fired James Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, a prosecutor in the office of the southern district of New York, who had handled the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases. Trump lost more control. Facing backlash, he asked Bondi to seek to release Epstein grand jury material, which almost certainly contained no reference to him and was a substitute for the full files, throwing oil on the fire. Trump pressured the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch not to publish a letter he wrote in honor of Epstein's 50th birthday. The Journal reported: 'It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman's breasts, and the future president's signature is a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. The letter concludes: 'Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.'' On Friday, Trump sued the Journal and Murdoch. The ghost of Epstein haunts Trump. He cannot dispel his spirit. 'Not a fan, not a fan,' he muttered in the past, trying to distance himself. But Epstein continues to swoop in – 'a guy who never dies'. Until evidence of Trump's participation in Epstein's transgressions is either established or discredited, including the photographs that Michael Wolff claimed Epstein showed him, Epstein will never die. If Epstein were to appear to Trump at night as an apparition, his Marley's ghost, he might warn him that there is no happy ending. Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of The Court of History podcast
