Cars from the EU are now subject to 25% import duties. To find out how this impacts those who ship imported and exported vehicles, DW visits Germany's Bremerhaven port, one of the largest automobile loading terminals in the world.
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00:00These cars are still rolling towards the U.S.
00:06At BLG Logistics, a port in Bremerhaven, a major German shipping hub, Mercedes, VWs and BMWs
00:14are loaded onto the Platinum Ray Glovis, a cargo ship headed for Brunswick in the U.S. state of Georgia.
00:21Eighty-four percent of the cars waiting here for export are from German manufacturers.
00:26According to industry group VDA, another 450,000 German-made vehicles were exported there last year.
00:37Supervisor Lisa Seegelkin wants to stay optimistic, for now.
00:45Of course all our employees are worried. But we've already lived through a few crises.
00:51So we're all still assuming that nothing major will change for us.
00:59However, BLG Logistics could be severely affected by these new U.S. car tariffs of 25 percent.
01:08One and a half million vehicles make their way abroad through Bremerhaven annually.
01:12A third are destined for the U.S.
01:15The head of the logistics company is therefore not so optimistic.
01:20We estimate the number of cars will drop by half.
01:24So we're preparing for that.
01:26With lower sales, lower profits and fewer jobs to be expected.
01:31And it could get even worse.
01:36The Trump administration has announced yet another weapon.
01:41And it's already in the works.
01:44The idea is to impose penalties on every ship call by a Chinese shipping company or any ship built in China,
01:51even if it's not operated by one.
01:59These penalties would be 1.5 million dollars per ship call.
02:04That would be the next blow.
02:06Cutting into trade routes like a chainsaw.
02:08To avoid these penalties, they could only use U.S. ships in Bremerhaven.
02:16However, there are too few of them available to meet the demand.
02:27Those in the import business could be affected too.
02:29Jörg Boehler, for example, imports vehicles.
02:35Like this former police car from the U.S. to Germany.
02:39He converts them to European standards for his customers.
02:49His company, Auto Kalkoven, also repairs American models with spare parts from the U.S.
02:59Many of these goods come from countries like Mexico and Canada, but now face higher U.S. tariffs.
03:08That drives up costs for companies buying from the U.S. and eventually for consumers too.
03:15The same applies to other products, such as RetroSigns, which Jörg Boehler also sells.
03:21If the EU imposes counter tariffs on U.S. imports, it could become more expensive for him.
03:26If they say, I'll add 20% now because Trump wants 20, and we'll add another 20, then it gets really expensive.
03:39In the port, you can already feel that there could be counter tariffs.
03:42We know of an American motorcycle manufacturer that, anticipating European tariffs, has already chartered 25 cargo planes to ship its motorcycles to Europe early.
03:56At the port, they're considering expanding trade with other regions and sectors, like renewable energy, to reduce dependence on the U.S. and on car imports and exports.
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