Donald Trump's trade war will only produce losers, warns auto industry

Carmakers and U. S. auto dealers are using a similar refrain to push back against U. S. President Donald Trump’s talk of a trade war: Everyone will suffer if the rhetoric keeps ratcheting up.
“Only losers” will emerge from the U. S. and European Union battling one another with tariffs, said Bernhard Mattes, the president of German auto-industry lobby VDA, which represents carmakers including Volkswagen AG and BMW AG.

Volvo Cars’s chief executive officer and a group representing American auto dealers echoed the sentiment almost verbatim in the wake of a tit-for-tat between Trump and the European Commission’s Jean-Claude Juncker. The comments suggest the auto industry could form a unified front after the president tweeted he could slap levies on BMWs, Audis and other cars shipped from Europe if the U. S.’s planned tariffs on imported steel and aluminum are met with retaliation.