The EU has agreed retaliatory duties on U.S. goods worth about EUR21 billion ($23.2 billion), Bloomberg reported.
“The European Union approved tariffs on U.S. goods worth about EUR21 billion ($23.2 billion) in response to the 25 percent duties that President Donald Trump imposed last month on steel and aluminum exports from the bloc,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
A majority of the 27 EU member states reportedly voted in favor of the sanctions on Wednesday, some of which will begin to take effect in mid-April. The tariffs will target politically sensitive U.S. states and will include products such as soybeans from Louisiana, the home state of House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as diamonds, agricultural products, poultry and motorcycles.
“The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said the countermeasures could be ended at any time ‘if the United States agrees to a fair and balanced negotiated outcome,’” the report said.
“The move intensifies the growing transatlantic trade war, as the USA has also applied a universal 20 percent tariff on almost all European exports, as well as a separate 25 percent duty on cars and some auto parts. Trump said he would announce additional tariffs on lumber, semiconductor chips and pharmaceutical products. All of Trump’s new tariffs hit EU goods worth about 380 billion euros,” Bloomberg noted.
The EU is reportedly facing duties of 25% on steel, aluminum and auto imports, as well as new broad duties of 20% on nearly all other goods under Trump’s policy of targeting countries he says impose high barriers to imports from the US.
The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, on Monday proposed additional duties of mostly 25% on a range of imports from the US. The imports include motorcycles, poultry, fruit, timber, clothing and dental floss, according to the document seen by Reuters. They amounted to about EUR21 billion ($23 billion) last year, meaning that the EU’s retaliatory action will apply to goods worth less than EUR26 billion of metal exports from the EU that were hit by the US tariffs.
