US Commerce Sec. Ross: US may not need to impose auto tariffs this month – Bloomberg

In his Bloomberg interview, published Sunday, the United States (US) Secretary Wilbur Ross said that the US may not need to impose tariffs on imported vehicles later this month after holding “good conversations” with automakers in the European Union, Japan and Korea. The news published by Bloomberg also mentions that the US must decide by Nov. 14 whether to impose threatened U.S. national security tariffs of as much as 25% on vehicles and parts. The tariffs have already been delayed once by six months, and trade experts say that could happen again.

Key quotes

“We have had very good conversations with our European friends, with our Japanese friends, with our Korean friends, and those are the major auto producing sectors.”

“Our hope is that the negotiations we have been having with individual companies about their capital investment plans will bear enough fruit that it may not be necessary to put the 232 (tariffs) fully into effect, may not even be necessary to put it partly in effect.”

FX implication

When the US-China trade optimism is already in the air, the positive statement concerning the global trade relations could also provide additional strength to the Australian Dollar (AUD). However, not much reaction could be witnessed to the news as the AUD/USD pair seesaws around 0.6915 by the press time of early Monday morning in Asia.