European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement that the bloc “will always remain open to negotiation.”
“As the US are applying tariffs worth 28 billion dollars, we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros,” she said. The commission manages trade and commercial conflicts on behalf of the 27 EU member countries.
“We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs,” von der Leyen said.
Trump said that his taxes would help create US factory jobs, but von der Leyen said: “Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.”
“We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy,” she said.
What will actually happen?
Trump slapped similar tariffs on EU steel and aluminum during his first term in office, which enraged European and other allies. The EU also imposed countermeasures in retaliation at the time, raising tariffs on US-made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans, among other items.
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This time, the EU action will involve two steps. First on April 1, the commission will reintroduce what it calls “rebalancing measures,” which the EU had from 2018 and 2020, but which were suspended under the Biden administration. Then on April 13 come the additional duties targeting 18 billion euros ($31.1 billion) in US exports to the bloc.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič travelled to Washington last month in an effort to head off the tariffs, meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other top trade officials.
He said on Wednesday that it became clear during the trip “that the EU is not the problem.”
“I argued to avoid the unnecessary burden of measures and countermeasures, but you need a partner for that. You need both hands to clap,” Šefčovič told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
The EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports, according to the European steel association Eurofer. The US is the second-biggest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16 per cent of the total EU steel exports.
The EU estimates that annual trade volume between both sides stands at about $US1.5 trillion ($2.4 trillion), representing around 30 per cent of global trade. While the bloc has a substantial export surplus in goods, it says that is partly offset by the US surplus in the trade of services.
AP
