Specter of Car Tariffs Forces Allies to Give Ground in Talks

President Trump’s threat to impose auto tariffs on imported cars has hit America’s trading partners in a sensitive spot, sending foreign leaders from Mexico to Japan racing to the negotiating table and, on Thursday, encouraging a significant concession by Europe.

The European Union’s top trade official said in Brussels that the bloc would be willing to remove all tariffs on cars and other industrial products as part of a limited trade deal with the United States, but only if America dropped its own similar tariffs. That offer will require Mr. Trump to decide whether he is willing to eliminate American tariffs, like a 25 percent tax on imported trucks, as he has previously said he is willing to do, or if Europe will call his bluff.

Europe is willing to reduce “car tariffs to zero, all tariffs to zero, if the U.S. does the same,” Cecilia Malmstrom, the European commissioner for trade, told members of the European Parliament on Thursday. “We would do it, if they do it. That remains to be seen.”

Europe’s change in position is the latest indication that Mr. Trump’s threat to impose 25 percent levies on foreign-made Toyotas, Mercedeses and BMWs is forcing trading partners to give ground. Europe had previously expressed a willingness to eliminate tariffs on industrial goods, but excluded cars, and said any deal had to be part of a broad free-trade agreement.

On Monday, the Mexican government agreed to effectively cap exports of cars, sport utility vehicles and auto parts into the United States, subjecting any exports above those levels to Mr. Trump’s tariffs if they go into effect.