The European Union (EU) retaliated quickly with a two-step strategy in response to President Trump’s new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, which went into effect Wednesday.
First, the 27-nation European trading bloc will allow the suspension of existing 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the United States to expire on April 1.
Second, the commission is proposing a new set of countermeasures on goods coming from the United States that will take effect in mid-April and cover a total of $28 billion in imports.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said Europe “deeply” regrets Trump’s additional steel and aluminum tariffs.
“Tariffs are taxes.” “They are bad for business and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said in a statement on Wednesday. “These tariffs are causing disruptions in supply chains. They create uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will rise. “In Europe and the United States.”
“The European Union must act to protect consumers and business,” she was saying. “The countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate.”
Following the announcement of the response, the EU issued a 99-page list of potential tariff targets, which included fruit and vegetables, meat, alcoholic beverages, nicotine vapes, and chewing gum.
Motorcycles, outerwear, household appliances, workshop tools, and snowplow sales may all suffer as a result.
“We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainty, burdening our economies with tariffs is not in our common interest. Von der Leyen expressed her willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue and asked Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič to continue exploring better solutions with the US.
Trump has long argued that Washington’s trade deals with the EU are “unfair,” and that additional tariffs on imports would help bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States. The president’s 25% aluminum tariff is a 15-point increase from the previous 10% levied on metal imports.
The president has also proposed separate tariffs on its two neighbors and largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, as well as a 10% additional tax on Chinese goods.
Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration would raise planned steel and aluminum tariffs against Canada in response to an electricity surcharge imposed by the Ontario government, the latest escalation in a growing trade war.
The EU plans to brief the 27 member states on the specifics of its response later Wednesday.
