Shocked, Shocked! One Of EU's Biggest Farm Machinery Mfgs Stops Shipments: "Alarming", Detailed Tariffs The Reason Why
One of Europe’s biggest farm machinery companies, Krone, has been forced to pause exports of large equipment to the US because of “alarming” and little-known new tariffs that are hitting hundreds of products from knitting needles and hairdryers to combine harvesters.
Among the products on the steel derivatives list drawn up in consultation with US manufacturers, Donald Trump is taxing 407 specific products ranging from tiny embroidery stilettos to cooker hoods, barbecues, fridges, freezers, dishwashers, hair curling tongs, grills, elevators, bridge and railway structures, agriculture equipment and wind turbines. It has meant that since 18 August, companies such as Krone and the construction company Liebherr in Germany have to provide an unprecedented level of detail to customs border authorities certifying the origin, weight and value of any steel in their products right down to nuts and bolts.
“You have to get paperwork from the supplier to the supplier to the supplier. That is pretty much impossible,” said Oliver Richtberg, the head of foreign trade at the German engineering federation VDMA, one of the most influential trade bodies in Europe. He described the EU/US trade deal, struck in July, as “not worth the paper it is written on”. “[Ursula] Von der Leyen speaks of stability – for our industry, that is 100% not true. The bureaucratic hurdles are so high that some companies have just stopped exporting to the US,” added Richtberg.
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Bernard Krone, the fourth generation chair of the company, said the new tariffs, which fall outside the EU deal, came as “a big shock” as the US was its second biggest market, worth $130m (£97m) a year. He thought the EU-US deal struck in July was “not perfect” but offered predictability until the steel derivative list was published on 18 August. “That list was very alarming for us. Added to that, nobody could tell us what to do. Did the tariffs depend on weight, origin or the price of raw steel?” said Krone. While international headlines have focused on the 15% blanket tariff agreed by the EU, this separate list of 407 products is a rolling nightmare for exporters as the US has also set new rules allowing it to be changed several times a year.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/oct/13/one-europe-biggest-farm-machinery-firms-halts-us-exports-hidden-tariffs-krone