Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on the Trump administration’s preliminary agreement with the European Union and efforts to reach a trade deal with Mexico and China.

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Wilbur Ross On EU: Objectives Of New Negotiation Have Been Firmly Set

Transcript

This President Trump headed to Granite City Illinois this morning where he is set to tour a steel mill that is now boosting production following the president's move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this year. This visit coming a day after announcing a breakthrough in trade talks with the European Union.

We agreed today. First of all to work together toward zero tariffs zero nontariff barriers and zero subsidies on non auto industrial goods. Thank you. While we are working on this we will not go against the spirit of this agreement unless either party terminates the negotiation. So we're starting the negotiation right now. But we know very much where it's going.

Still the tariffs on aluminum and steel are costing American companies both Coca-Cola and General Motors now say they will have to raise prices on their products in large part because of the president's trade fights joining us right now to weigh in from Washington. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Secretary it's good to see this one. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for having me on Maria. Well this was a big deal yesterday with the president andMr. Yanka. Can you go through what was what was agreed upon.

Surely the objectives of the new trade negotiation have been very firmly said we're going towards zero tariffs zero nontariff trade barriers zero subsidies. So that should really level the playing field and enable American companies to be fully competitive and get that kind of market access that they need. Meanwhile the steel and aluminum tariffs still in place. We will continue pursuing our investigation of the automotive 232 and. Hopefully these negotiations will be completed fairly quickly so that we can get to the stable situation.

So is the plan to eventually do away with the aluminum and steel tariffs or the auto tariffs. I mean even on light trucks. TheU.S. charges what 25 percent. Right. Well

you notice unload trucks. There was an exception for automotive products. It said we'd work towards zero tariffs on non automotive industrial products is to steel and aluminum. There's no intention to abandon those industries. So the president is very happy with the progress they've made in opening new facilities. I'm joining them today as we go out to visit one that had just recently been reopened. It's not going to do anything to destroy steel and aluminum from their new found substance.

Was there a timeline discussed sectary in terms of when we might see actual clarity on what the trade deal will look like between theU.S. and the EU.

There's no precise timetable set because that's not a meaningful thing. But the president made it very clear he is not going to sit around for the normal 2 3 years to get a trade deal done. Since we've got the broad principles agreed that now should be more filling in the blanks than starting from ground zero.

And what do you think about these tariffs hitting Detroit General Motors Ford and Fiat Chrysler all yesterday lowered guidance suggesting their full year outlook says they revealed lower than expected second quarter earnings all of which were impacted by the rising costs of steel and aluminum. SoMr. Secretary will the president's negotiations with the EU reverse what's gone on with the automakers we are already seeing that they're expecting this to impact their their business.

Well I have said before the impact of steel and aluminum on the auto industry's cause is really.