The European Commission announced early this Wednesday, March 12, that it would apply “strong but proportioned” customs rights to a series of American products from April 1, in response to American taxes of 25 % on steel and aluminum, entries in force this same day.
The EU “deeply regrets” the measures decided by President Donald Trump, said the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a statement. “Customs duties are taxes. They are bad for business and even worse for consumers,” she added. “Jobs are at stake. Prices will increase. In Europe and the United States”.
The European Commission estimates that American measures will allocate $ 28 billion in goods, or 26 billion euros. She announced that the EU replica would affect the same amount of American goods.
The 25 % customs duties on steel and aluminum desired by the new White House tenant became effective this Wednesday at 12:01 am (05:01 am French), marking a new stage in the trade war between the United States and its main trade partners.
Canada, China, the European Union, Japan and Australia are concerned, while Donald Trump’s displayed goal is to protect the American steel industry, which sees its production drop from year to year, faced with increasingly vigorous competition, notably from Asia. The American president had already taxed imports of steel and aluminum during his first mandate (2017-2021) but this new tax is “without exception and without exemption,” he said at his announcement in early February.
A two -step replica
The European replica will be made in two stages. On April 1, the countermeasures of the EU set up in 2018 and 2020 in response to the American customs duties of the first mandate of Donald Trump will be automatically restored, their suspension arriving at March 31. “For the first time, these rebalancing measures will be implemented in their entirety. Customs duties will be applied to products ranging from boats to Bourbon via motorcycles,” said the European Commission.
But the new American customs duties entered into force on Wednesday go much further than those of Trump’s first mandate. Consequently, the European Commission launched on March 12 a procedure to impose additional countermeasures against the United States in order to achieve the same impact as American measures. The first step in this procedure is a phase of “two -week consultation with EU stakeholders” in order to guarantee that “good products” will be targeted and “ensure an effective response (…) minimizing disturbances for European companies and consumers”. These additional measures should come into force in mid-April.