Example: EU has a 29% tax (10% tariff and a 19% import VAT) on all American made cars. Their claim that they charge an average of 3% is statistically true but a lie, because that average is not in actual trade dollars, but across all product categories (definitions,) many of which the USA does not export into EU. The 3% average gives American car imports as exactly the statistical weight as non-existent American Penguin imports. They have very high tariff’s that target American products that compete with their domestic producers. Their tariff on American potato: 0%. Their tariff on American headphones: 42%. An excellent example of this was 20 years ago there where no American camera manufacturers. EU tariff was 0% on this non-existent trade. When American companies Red and Blackmagic started competing against EU made cameras - EU jacked the tariff up to 4.2%. There are also informal trade barriers. You cannot sell American Wine in France for fear of getting your shop burned down. The core EU airlines refuse to buy Boeing airplanes. To understand these trade barriers, go to EU and you’ll find that only American products available are ones that do not compete against EU products.
Typical EU tariffs on US exports are not high ( generally in the 10% range, but still higher than US tariffs on EU exports. Moreover, the EU actually has banned a number of US exports as well, often on marginal grounds. A ban is higher than any tariff as far as I can tell.
Secondly, the rebate of internal taxes is allowed by the EU, but US companies are not allowed to deduct US taxes from prices of exports as the main tax in the US is an income tax, not a VAT.
Make up any example you wish, but when a nation rebates internal taxes to its companies and does not give any equivalent consideration to companies in certain other nations, there is a teensy chance that the other countries are at a trade disadvantage.
