The European Commission said on Wednesday that it would be introducing its own raft of tariffs against US goods by April 1.
The “countermeasures” were announced after US tariffs of up to 25% on EU steel and aluminum came into effect.
The Commission said it would impose the “countermeasures to protect European businesses, workers and consumers from the impact of these unjustified trade restrictions.”
“The objective is to ensure that the total value of the EU measures corresponds to the increased value of trade impacted by the new US tariffs,” the Commission said.
“As the US are applying tariffs worth $28 billion (€26 billion), we are responding with countermeasures worth €26 billion,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
“We will always remain open to negotiation. 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 added.
In a statement, the European Commission, which is responsible for handling trade conflicts on behalf of the EU’s 27 members, said that it was reintroducing measures put in place during the previous Donald Trump presidency when the US imposed similar tariffs.
It is also adding new measures. In all, the EU’s response will target steel and aluminum in kind, as well as textiles, leather goods, home appliances, house tools, plastics and wood.
Agricultural products will also be impacted, including poultry, beef, some seafood, nuts, eggs, sugar and vegetables.
The EU countermeasures will come into effect in two stages, von der Leyen said, with the previous measures returning on April 1 and all measures expected to be in place by April 13.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the move by the US.
“I think the decisions on tariffs by the USA are wrong and we will react to them appropriately and quickly,” he said on Wednesday.
He said his government was maintaining “close contact with the European Commission and other EU member states” about responses.
EU Council chief Antonio Costa, for his part, called for a de-escalation of the situation, stressing that the EU had offered “to talk, to negotiate with the United States” over the issue.
“I think we have enough war in the world, we need to stop the wars we have and not create a trade war,” Costa said in remarks at a press conference with Scholz, where he also said any reaction by the European Commission would be “proportional.”
Meanwhile, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer called the EU’s announced measures “out of step with reality.”
Blaming the EU for failing to help address global excess capacity on the metals and other sectors, Greer said: “The EU’s punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States — and indeed international security.”
The Trump administration has spooked markets across the world with its quick implementation of major tariffs against some of its biggest trading partners.
The first targets in the president’s sights were Canada, Mexico and China, all of which announced their own retaliatory measures.
On Wednesday, Canada said it would impose additional tariffs on $20.7 billion of US goods.
Trump’s tariffs have also been criticized for their unpredictability, with the White House changing plans seemingly last minute in many cases.
Leaders of some of the US’ biggest allies rushed to Washington to fend off threats of tariffs, but it remains to be seen if Trump will be willing to cut deals and grant relief as he did during his last term in office.
Trump has said the tariffs are an attempt to rebalance unfair trade practices.
Due to the major spending power of US consumers, many countries export more to the US than they import from it.
But economists have warned that tariffs will ultimately hurt US consumers and have questioned whether they will attract producers to bring their production lines back to the United States.
Financial markets have been troubled by the possibility of the world’s largest economy tipping into a recession, but Trump dismissed concerns over Wall Street indexes falling for a second day straight on Tuesday, saying he doesn’t see a downturn on its way. – DW.
