Action was requested, and Action begins to arrive: the European Union (EU) has promoted “rapid and proportionate” on Wednesday to imports from the United States, in response to the entry into force of.
“The Commission regrets the US decision to impose such, for considering them unjustified, disturbing transatlantic and harmful trade for companies and consumers, since they often translate into an increase in prices,”.
The community executive explained that their response to these US tariffs of 25 % to imports of these metals around the world has been “carefully calibrated” and is based on a two -phase approach.
First, the Commission will allow the suspension of current countermeasures of 2018 and 2020 against the US to expire on April 1. These countermeasures are aimed at a series of American products that respond to the economic damage caused to exports of EU steel and aluminum worth 8,000 million euros.
Secondly, in response to new US tariffs that affect more than 18,000 million euros of EU exports, the commission proposes a package of new countermeasures on US exports that are expected to enter into force in mid -April, after consulting the Member States and interested parties.
In total, EU countermeasures could therefore apply to exports of US goods worth up to 26,000 million euros, matching the economic reach of US tariffs, the EC explained, which said they represent a value of 28,000 million euros.
Meanwhile, he assured that the EU is still willing to collaborate with the US administration to find a negotiated solution, and recalled that the announced measures “can be annulled at any time in case said solution is found.”
“Commercial relations between the European Union and the United States are the largest in the world. They have contributed prosperity and security to millions of people, and trade has created millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic,” recalled the president of the European Commission, who lamented “deeply” the US measure.
He affirmed that tariffs “are taxes, are bad for companies and still worse for consumers,” and stressed that “supply chains disturb, they bring uncertainty for the economy”: “jobs are at stakes. Prices will rise. In Europe and in the United States,” he warned.
“They are taxes, they are bad for companies and even worse for consumers (…). Jobs are at stakes. Prices will rise in Europe and in the US”
Thus, he stressed that the EU “must act to protect consumers and companies”, and that the countermeasures they have decided today are “strong but provided.”
Von der Leyen indicated that European countermeasures will be introduced in two stages: they will begin on April 1 and will fully enter into force on the 13th of that month, although in the meantime they will remain “open to the negotiation.”
“We firmly believe that, in a world plagued by geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it does not result in our common interest to load our economies with tariffs. We are willing to establish a significant dialogue,” he said, adding that he has asked the European Commissioner for Commerce, Maros Sefcovic, to “resume his conversations to explore better solutions with the US.”
Tariffs imposed by the United States for Imported Steel and Aluminum entered into force this Wednesday at a time of growing uncertainty in the markets due to the changes of course of the Donald Trump government in its commercial policy ,.
25 % tariffs on steel and aluminum imported to the US began just spending midnight without exceptions and mainly affect Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam, in steel, already United Arab Emirates, Russia and China, in aluminum.
