Washington has a “long tradition” of waging trade wars, if they are favorable to the US economy, and the Deutsche Bank case is an example of that, said the German parliament’s economics committee chairman Peter Ramsauer in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.
Another German politician, Merkel ally and MEP Markus Ferber has suggested the Deutsche Bank investigation is a “tit for tat response” from the US Department of Justice after Brussels imposed a record €13 billion penalty against Apple’s tax misdoings in Europe.
On August 30, an investigation led by the EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager concluded Ireland illegally provided Apple with a favorable tax rate which allowed the company to pay one percent on EU profits in 2003 down to 0.005 percent in 2014.
Earlier this year, Germany’s Volkswagen agreed to pay $16.5 billion in the US for cheating on American diesel vehicle air pollution tests between 2008 and 2015. The fines still risk growing by billions and VW needs to recall 85,000 vehicles.