BMW upbeat on riding out US tariff chaos [Video]

German premium carmaker BMW said Wednesday that it expected to largely ride out the impact of US tariffs over the coming year, and that it hoped to soften their impact.

CEO Oliver Zipse told reporters on a call that BMW was lobbying hard for free trade and expected some success thanks to its worldwide footprint.

“We are advocating this at various political levels in our markets,” he said. “People listen to us attentively and our arguments are well received.”

Zipse added that he expected tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on Canada and Mexico to eventually be rolled back.

“We assume that the North American free trade zone will be restored because these countries are far too interdependent,” he said. “The costs for everyone are far too large.”

Trump has threatened and imposed a range of tariffs in a bid to boost American manufacturing, including a 25 percent levy …