Green light for first round of European countermeasures to Trump’s tariffs. They will apply from April 15

Brussels – Member states have given the green light to the first EU response to Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. The response will take place in three stages, starting on April 15, when the rebalancing measures already adopted against the United States in 2018 will come back into force. The countermeasures, the European Commission stresses, “can be suspended at any time.”

It would be enough for Washington to “agree to a fair and balanced negotiation,” which remains Brussels’ “clear preference,” reads the note published on the sidelines of today’s vote, which took place in the Trade Barriers Committee (TBR), composed of ministerial delegates from member states. According to the comitology procedure, opposition from a qualified majority of EU countries would have been required to block the countermeasures proposed by the European Commission.

After weeks of wavering (the Commission had proposed dusting off the 2018 list as early as a month ago, only to backtrack), the EU is responding this way to the U.S. duties on steel and aluminium imports already in effect since March 12. From the first list, which includes products such as rice, cereals, fruit, fruit juices, tobacco, cigars, oils, paper, textiles, clothing, footwear, ceramics, glass, mattresses, and furniture materials, whiskey and bourbon have been crossed off, to avoid measures against wine. The tariffs on imports of these products are expected to hit U.S. goods worth €3.8 billion.

The other three annexes to today’s decision include a range of products the EU will hit to offset the 25 per cent duty increase on primary aluminium and the expansion of measures to steel and aluminium by-products. The second phase of the EU response will go into effect from May 16, while only from December 1 will the additional tariffs be applied to almonds and soybeans. “To give our farmers time to identify new suppliers and to give another signal of openness in the negotiations with Washington,” the EU executive says. In total, the countermeasures approved by member countries will hit U.S. exports to the EU worth nearly 21 billion euros.

The retaliation is not about Trump’s imposition of a 20 per cent reciprocal tariff on all imports of European goods, nor is it about the 25 per cent tariff on cars. European Commission trade spokesman Olof Gill said yesterday that the EU executive could present new countermeasures to these tariffs “as early as next week.”