BRUSSELS — "This year could be quite turbulent for the EU-U.S. relations if the auto issue becomes an area of dispute," former U.S. diplomat and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, Peter Chase, has said.

"But I think it will be solved because it is not interests of the United States to do this, neither economically nor politically," Chase told Xinhua in a recent interview on EU-U.S. relations.

The automobile industry has been a sticking point in the U.S.-EU trade disputes, with the White House threatening to slap tariffs on European cars and car parts while singling out Germany's largely vehicle-driven trade surplus over the United States.