The EU has announced that it will impose “a measure” on US goods worth up to 26 billion euros (£22 billion) in order to retaliate tariffs on Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum imports.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the 25% US collection on global metal imports “unfair trade restrictions” after it came into effect at 4am GMT on Wednesday.
“I deeply regret this measure,” von der Leyen said in a statement. She announced that “strong but proportional” measures will come into effect from April 1st. “Taxes are taxes, bad for businesses, bad for consumers. They are disrupting the supply chain. They create uncertainty in the economy,” she said.
Retaliatory measures include Brussels reimposed duties on US goods such as bourbon whiskey, jeans and Harley-Davidson bikes.
These tariffs, which often cover prominent US goods worth 4.5 billion euros from Republican states, will return on April 1st. The list was worth 6.3 billion euros in 2018, but has been shrinking due to a decline in Brexit and US exports.
Separately, the committee plans to further retaliate targeting €18 billion worth of goods, including a wide range of steel and aluminum products, poultry, beef, seafood and nuts. These tariffs will be imposed from mid-April, following talks with the industry to minimize votes by EU countries and damage to the European economy.
“We’re going to try to hit where it hurts,” said a senior EU official. He said Brock is targeting soybeans grown in the House Speaker of the Louisiana state. “We love soybeans, but we’re happy to buy them from Brazil, Argentina or elsewhere.”
The committee announced that the measure would total 26 billion euros, but EU officials later said it would cover the US products of perhaps 22.5 billion euros, as some products will likely be excluded after consultations with businesses and member states.
However, no further steps have been ruled out. French Minister of European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said on Wednesday that the EU could “go further ahead” against US tariffs. The measure is “proportional,” Haddad told TF1 TV. “If we are in a situation where we have to go further, we can include digital services or intellectual property,” he said.
EU officials hope that pressure on Republican states and US businesses will help bring about deals. “We firmly believe that in a world filled with geopolitical and economic uncertainty, it is not our common interest to burden tariffs on our economy.”
The UK will not issue its own immediate action in response to US tariffs, but the government has said it “reserves our right to retaliate.”
Although taxation was disappointing, James Murray, the secretary of the Treasury, told Times Radio, “We want to take a practical approach. And we are already negotiating a rapid economic agreement with the US, and could eliminate additional tariffs.”
Asked by SkyNews if the UK’s response to taxation is weaker than Brussels, Murray said that the UK is in a “very different position from the EU” and that he “don’t want to be pushed out of the course” as it pursued a trade deal with Washington.
“I think the right response is to continue practically, with Coolhead, without Niejerk’s response, but towards an economic agreement that we are negotiating with the US, as it is in the UK’s greatest interest,” he said.
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EU officials said they were talking to counterparts in other countries, including the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Canada and Japan, but they had no adjustments to their responses.
Officials also indicated that they have not ruled out “protective measures” (duties or allocations of steel or aluminum from other countries) if the US trade barriers result in flooding of imports into Europe. In 2019, Switzerland, one of the EU’s closest trading partners, complained when it was affected by EU restrictions on steel imports designed to protect the EU industry.
British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said the UK doesn’t need to choose between the EU and the US, but on Tuesday it appears that the UK’s final ditch effort to persuade British industry to spare global tariffs has failed.
The UK steel industry warned that Trump’s tariffs “we couldn’t come at a bad time,” saying the move “has had a major damage to UK suppliers and US customers.”
Gareth Stace, director of the British Trade Association, called the Trump administration’s moves “very disappointing.” He said: “President Trump must certainly recognize that Britain is an ally, not an enemy. Our steel sector is not a threat to the US, but a partner of its key customers, and shares the same values and purpose in addressing global overcapacity and tackling unfair transactions.
“These tariffs have not come at a bad time for the UK steel industry. We are fighting against high energy costs and suppressed demand at home, fighting overly supported and increasingly protectionist global landscapes.”
Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s Trade Commission, described tariffs as “an alternative amount of tariff pain caused by the Trump administration.”
He said the latest tariffs were “particularly bad.” Because “they target our trading partners, are set up arbitrarily deliberately without legal and economic justification, and cannot address non-market overcapacity.
The introduction of EU measures comes after a day of Tuesday’s drama, when Trump threatened to double Canada’s steel and aluminum tariffs in response to Canada’s threat of raising electricity prices for US customers.
The US president has stepped back from those plans after Ontario Premier Doug Ford agreed to suspend the state’s decision to impose a 25% extra charge on electricity exports to Minnesota, Michigan and New York.
