Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – The EU on Thursday threatened to target US cars and planes among a raft of products worth 95 billion euros ($107 billion) if negotiations with President Donald Trump’s team fail to avert a trade war. The European Commission said it would, in parallel, file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Trump’s imposition of swingeing tariffs against the bloc. The US leader announced a 20-percent “reciprocal” tariff on most EU goods in April, but he then froze the measure until July, along with higher duties on dozens of other nations. Trump, however, maintained a “baseline” 10 percent tariff on imports from around the world, including the 27-nation European Union.
The EU wants to strike a deal with the United States to prevent an all-out trade war, but is preparing its retaliation should Trump’s tariffs kick in again. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen reiterated the bloc’s determination to reach a negotiated solution and avoid painful tariffs on both sides. “The EU remains fully committed to finding negotiated outcomes with the US. We believe there are good deals to be made for the benefit of consumers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic,” she said. Trump has also rolled out 25-percent tariffs on imports of steel, aluminium and cars. Brussels cooked up a first list of products to target worth 21 billion euros in response to the steel and aluminium duties, but it has paused those retaliatory tariffs until July 14 to give time for negotiations.
The much larger list unveiled on Thursday — the bloc’s proposed response to Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” — is designed to up the pressure on the US side to reach a deal. There will be some hope of an agreement after Trump on Thursday announced a deal with Britain on trade, which would be the first such accord since he launched his tariffs blitz.
In a 218-page document, the EU listed all the products it could target including US-made aircraft, cars, human hair, nuts and fruit, plastics, chemicals and electrical equipment. The list also included bourbon whiskey — which had been removed from the first set of retaliatory measures in a bid to shield European wine and spirits from threatened reprisals. Planes and autos make up some of the largest value of goods on the list, worth 10.5 billion euros and more than 12 billion euros respectively, a senior EU official said. Plastics and chemicals worth 12.9 billion euros also feature.
The EU has insisted that if Trump does not back down, it is prepared to take more extreme measures, including targeting US Big Tech. “All options remain on the table,” the senior official said. Trump’s April 2 announcement of “reciprocal tariffs” on dozens of countries — including China and traditional allies such as the EU — sent global markets into a panic, before he declared a 90-day pause for negotiations. Senior EU officials have since visited Washington for talks, with little so far to show for their efforts.
In parallel, the EU said it would “soon” launch a WTO dispute over the auto tariffs and the 20-percent duties. “It is the unequivocal view of the EU that these tariffs blatantly violate fundamental WTO rules,” it said. EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic told the European Parliament this week that 70 percent of the bloc’s total exports face levies at rates between 10 and 25 percent. He warned that with US trade probes underway into a raft of sectors, from pharmaceuticals to lumber, “around 549 billion euros of EU exports to the US, i.e. 97 percent of the total” could eventually face tariffs.
© 2024 AFP
