The leaders of the European Union have been clear that they wish to negotiate with the United States on trade to avoid a conflict in its own right. But without agreement in sight, officials announced a plan on Wednesday which aims to retaliate strong as steel and aluminum prices Enter into force.
President Trump imposed 25% prices on all global imports of steel and aluminum, including products containing these metals, such as kitchen utensils and window frames. Given this width, The European Union said That American samples could allocate around 26 billion euros – $ 28 billion – block exports.
The block therefore announced a plan which aims to retaliate to an almost equal extent.
The answer will occur in two parts. The block had increased the prices on a range of goods in retaliation for American measures during Mr. Trump’s first term, but they were suspended as part of the Biden administration. This suspension will be authorized to light on April 1, increasing the prices $ 4.5 billion euros of products including boats, bourbon and motorcycles.
The second stage of the block, he said, would be to place prices on approximately 18 billion euros in additional products. Representatives of countries across Europe will consult for two weeks before the officials end the list of affected products.
Items that have been proposed For inclusion, are industrial and agricultural. They are supposed to target products – including soybeans, beef and chicken – which are important exports of republican bastions. These include the Louisiana district which elected Mike Johnson, the president of the room.
The objective is to have the new measures in force by mid-April.
The announcement was the opening decision of Europe in an ongoing trade conflict – which should largely intensify during the coming month.
For the block, the American steel and aluminum prices are only the beginning of what Mr. Trump threatened. He has sworn several times define large prices On American trade partners worldwide on April 2. He suggested that the samples from cars in particular could be 25%A figure that would be painful for German and Italian car manufacturers.
“We are now in this spiral discharge,” said Carsten Brzeski, world chief of macro research on the bench.
On the one hand, the European Union does not want to degenerate the trade war. European officials have called prices “economically counterproductive“, Warning that a price fight in Tit-For-Tat would harm all those involved.
“Prices are taxes,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive branch of the block, in a television statement Wednesday. “The jobs are at stake, the prices up, no one needs this.”
But the Trump administration hesitated to negotiate, which pushes European decision -makers to adopt a more aggressive position.
“I traveled to the United States last month; I was looking for a constructive dialogue to avoid unnecessary pain in measures and countermeasures, “said Maros Sefcovic, the highest head of the European Commission trade during a press briefing this week. “In the end, as said, one hand cannot applaud. The American administration does not seem to be committed to concluding an agreement. »»
EU leaders pointed out Wednesday that the block response is supposed to be proportionate and Mr. Sefcovic pointed out that they were avoidable “If the American administration accepts our prolonged hand.”
Trump’s prices have a difficult time for the European economy. After several years of growth in growth, companies from the whole block look at the prospect of aggravating the commercial conditions that could harm their activities abroad.
Groups representing the German steel industry, for example, have said That prices arise at “inappropriate time”, when the producers of the European Union face cheap competition from China.
Europe has not been taken by surprise, at least. A trade focused on the European Union, was familiarly called the “Trump Task Force” ,,,, spent a large part of last year Preparation of various scenarios of commercial conflicts.
But it was difficult for Europeans – and other American trade partners – to decide how to react. It is not clear what are the objectives of Mr. Trump nor which will ultimately be preserved, because his administration has become used to threatening and then going back, at least temporarily.
“It is difficult to know what will remain and what will not remain,” said Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, who recently organized an event with Mr. Sefcovic.
European officials also struggled to get their American counterparts on the phone. Ms. von der Leyen has not spoken individually with Mr. Trump since his inauguration.
Asked at a press conference on Sunday when she could speak to her, she said: “We will have a personal meeting when the time comes.”
Kaja Kallas, chief diplomat of the block, was supposed to meet Marco Rubio, the American secretary of state, in Washington, at the end of February, but Mr. Rubio canceled this meeting.
And diplomats from the whole of the European Union and its member countries had trouble identifying who to speak in the Trump administration, partly for lack of clarity on the way the decisions are made.
“I think there is a level of dismay for the objectives of the administration,” said Jörn Fleck, Senior Director of Europe Center of Atlantic Council, a research institution based in Washington.
He said Europe could fight more to respond in a world in which the United States does not just want to conclude an agreement, but rather want to fundamentally reorganize the world commercial order so that more is produced in the United States.
“Maybe there is no agreement to have,” he said.
