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51m ago
09.10 BST
EU to
vote on retaliatory 25% tariffs on US exports
Jennifer
Rankin
The EU
will vote later on Wednesday on imposing retaliatory duties on €21bn of US
goods, including agricultural produce, make-up, steel parts and plastics, in
Europe’s first act of retaliation against Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The EU is
looking at 25% tariffs on scores of goods from almonds to yachts, according to
a document seen by the Guardian and first reported by Reuters. Most of the
tariffs would apply from 15 May, unless blocked by a large majority of member
states.
The
measures are a response to the US tariffs on steel and aluminium announced by
Trump in February. The EU has chosen goods that can be easily sourced from
elsewhere, while some targets are intended to inflict political pain on key
Republican states. The European Commission, for example, wants tariffs on US
soybeans, grown abundantly in Louisiana, the home state of House of
Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.
A
European Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday that the second phase of the
EU’s response - retaliatory measures in response to tariffs on cars and the
sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” announced on 2 April - would be presented “early
next week”.
Around
70% of EU exports to the United States, goods worth €382bn, will be affected by
Trump’s tariffs, a move that has rang alarm bells across the continent, amid
forecasts of job losses and a hit to economic growth.
EU trade
commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said on Monday the EU was “not in the business of
going cent for cent or tit for tat or dollar for dollar” when it comes to
retaliation on goods. EU officials acknowledge that options for retaliatory
tariffs – that are relatively pain-free for Europeans – are narrowing. This
week the EU dropped plans to target bourbon, after lobbying from
drinks-producing nations France, Italy and Ireland, which feared their wine and
spirits industries being hit by Trump’s threat of 200% counter tariffs.
As the EU
runs out of options on goods, EU nations are increasingly interested in
targeting US service industries, a sensitive area where the US runs a €109bn
trade surplus.
A meeting
of EU trade ministers on Monday revealed varying enthusiasm for the EU’s
anti-coercion instrument, which would allow the bloc to adopt wide-ranging
actions against a country deemed to be using trade as a weapon, such as
revoking intellectual property or market access rights. Michał Baranowki, the
Polish economy minister, who chaired the meeting, said “there was a sense in
the room of not being trigger happy… but no one was pushing back for being
soft”.
EU
officials have said nothing is off the table, while urging the US to enter
negotiations.
The
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revealed on Monday that the
White House had been offered a “zero-for-zero” trade deal. She went public with
the offer after the billionaire businessman and Trump adviser Elon Musk mused
about a free-trade zone between the EU and US over the weekend, in a sign of
dissent with the administration.
The offer
of zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods was first made in mid February
when Šefčovič met his counterpart Howard Lutnick, but the idea dates back to a
previous effort to persuade Trump to drop tariffs in 2018.
The talks
have not yielded results so far, amid uncertainty over whether Trump’s tariffs
are intended to raise revenues, create leverage over other countries, or to
reindustrialise America
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