THE European Union Wednesday announced a commercial action of reprisals with new tasks on American industrial and agricultural products, responding in a few hours to the increase in the Trump administration in price On all steel and aluminum imports at 25%.
The largest commercial block in the world awaited the American prices and prepared in advance, but the measures are still exerting great pressure on transatlantic relations already tense. Washington warned Europe last month that it should take care of its own security in the future.
EU measures will cover the goods of the United States worth 26 billion euros (28 billion US dollars), and not only steel and aluminum products, but also textiles, domestic devices and agricultural products. Motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans will be affected, as they were during the president Donald TrumpThe first term.
EU tasks are targeting pressure points in the United States while minimizing additional damage to Europe. Prices – import taxes – mainly target the states of the Republican, hitting soybeans in Louisiana of the president of the Mike Johnson room, but also of the beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska. The products in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia are also on the list.
The EU moves to protect itself
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a statement that the block “will always remain open to negotiation”.
“While the United States applies prices worth $ 28 billion, we respond with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros,” she said. The Commission manages commercial and commercial conflicts on behalf of the 27 EU member countries.
“We firmly believe that in a world loaded with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to lower our savings with prices,” said Von Der Leyen.
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Trump said his taxes would help create jobs in the American factory, but Von Der Leyen said: “The jobs are at stake. Prices will increase. In Europe and the United States. »»
“We deeply regret this measure. Prices are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers. These prices disrupt the supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy, ”she said.
American Business Group urges discussions
The US Chamber of Commerce to the EU said that the American prices and the EU countermeasures “will only harm jobs, prosperity and security on both sides of the Atlantic”.
“The two parties must defuse and find an urgent negotiated result,” said the room on Wednesday.
What will happen really?
Trump slapped similar prices on EU steel and aluminum during his first mandate, which rapped European and others allies. The EU also imposed countermeasures in retaliation at the time, increasing the rates on motorcycles manufactured in the United States, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans, among other articles.
This time, the action of the EU will imply two stages. First, on April 1, the Commission reintroduced what it calls “rebalancing measures”, which the EU had EU from 2018 and 2020 but which were suspended within the framework of the Biden administration. On April 13, additional rights targeting 18 billion euros ($ 19.6 billion) in US exports to the block.
EU’s commerce commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, went to Washington last month in order to leave the prices, meeting the American secretary for trade Howard Larnick and other senior trade officials.
He said on Wednesday that he had become clear during the trip that “the EU is not the problem”.
“I have argued to avoid the unnecessary burden on measures and countermeasures, but you need a partner for that. You need both hands to applaud, “Šefčovič told European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Soupperie of European steel companies for losses
The EU could lose up to 3.7 million tonnes of steel exports, according to the Eurofer European Steel Association. The United States is the second largest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16% of total EU steel exports.
The EU estimates that the annual commercial volume between the two parties amounts to around 1.5 billion of dollars, which represents around 30% of world trade. Although the block has a surplus of substantial export in goods, it says that this is partly compensated by the American surplus in the trade in services.
Great Britain, which is not part of the EU, said that it would not impose its own reprisal measures on the American British affairs secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said on Wednesday that it would continue to engage closely and in a productive manner with the United States to put pressure on British commercial interests “.
He has not excluded future prices on American imports, saying: “We will keep all options on the table and will not hesitate to respond in the national interest.”
MCHUL has reported to Frankfurt. The writer Associated Press Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
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