(31 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Port of Zeebrugge, Zeebrugge, Belgium – 31 July 2025
1. Various of European made vehicles ready for export to US and Europe at the International Car Operators terminal
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam McNeil, The Associated Press: ++STARTS ON SHOT 1++
“We’re here at the Belgian port of Zeebrugge on the North Sea, where roughly 1.8 million cars manufactured in Europe are exported all across the world. The Associated Press came to this terminal where roughly 70,000 cars are ready for export around the world, roughly half of which are destined for America, to see just how these global tariffs were going to affect operators here. Authorities tell us that there was an initial point where car manufacturers across Europe were scrambling to get out vehicles to the United States and the market there before tariffs were in place, followed by weeks of uncertainty. But now that the tariff regime is relatively set, that certainty is just lending itself to smoothness of operations and things getting back to just about normal.”
3. Various of car at erminal
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A light drizzle off the North Sea washed tens of thousands of cars ready to load on a giant cargo ship — all with a brand new increase in price thanks to American tariffs rolling out worldwide.
Belgium’s coastline is one of the chokepoints of the global trade in automobiles — brought by trains and trucks from the factories of Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and BMW and others to ship to customers overseas in the United Kingdom, Asia, the Middle East, South America and North America.
The port of Zeebrugge exports about 1.8 million cars every year from Europe around the world.
And at just one terminal run by Internation Car Operators, about 70,000 cars sat waiting on teams of drivers in white gloves to drive them into a massive container ship shaped like a shoe box.
When Trump initially announced global tariffs on cars, manufacturers scrambled to get their vehicles to customers before the tariff deadline.
But following an agreement between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the uncertainty is giving way to business-as-usual — just with a heftier price tag for consumers.
The auto industry in Europe celebrated the deal, but cautioned that more negotiations are needed — noting that higher tariffs from the US on European cars will continue to negatively impact the industry.
AP Video by Mark Carlson
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