Economy

Brussels kicks off retaliation against US tariffs

Commission to target US goods including whisky and tobacco if no exemption

Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s top trade official, will next week meet senior US officials to discuss the tariff issue. Photograph: Getty

Fri Mar 16 2018 - 15:41

Brussels has kicked off the process of applying retaliation measures against the United States over its planned steel and aluminium tariffs, in case the European Union fails to secure an exemption from Washington.

The European Commission published a draft list of US imports to be targeted for retaliatory tariffs, ranging from whisky to motorbikes and tobacco. The move kicks off a 10-day period for companies to raise concerns before Brussels formally adopts the list.

EU officials said they needed to move ahead now in order to meet World Trade Organisation deadlines on notifying countermeasures against the US's planned 25 per cent tariffs on steel imports and 10 per cent tariffs on aluminium imports.

“We need to be sure that we protect our rights,” one official said.

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Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU's top trade official, will next week meet senior US officials, including commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, as the clock ticks down towards the activation of the punitive US tariffs on March 23rd.

While the US has indicated that Canada and Mexico will be temporarily exempted, it has so far not provided assurances to the EU.

Confusion

“We still have quite a lot of confusion, a lack of clarity about what is the basis [on which the] US government will be taking these [exemption] decisions,” one official said. Still, the commission’s impression is that factors such as whether a country is a strong security partner of the US, and whether it backs global efforts to tackle steel overcapacity, will weigh in Washington’s decision.

Brussels countermeasures concern about €2.8 billion of US imports. The EU is set to notify them to the WTO, even if in the end they do not need to be activated.

Brussels also published another list of additional products that could be targeted, after three years, if no progress is made on resolving the trade spat at the WTO, or if the WTO rules against the US measures.

If the US presses ahead, it is “something that would be very disruptive for transatlantic relations,” an official said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2018

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