The European Commission has formally notified the World Trade Organisation of its plans to slap sanctions on the US if it fails to settle a row with Washington over steel duties.
EC trade spokesman Mr Anthony Gooch told a news conference notifying the WTO was a formal step the EU had to take if it eventually wanted to impose sanctions on the US.
"This is a step we had to take by a certain time," he said, referring to the June 18th deadline the bloc had to meet to inform the WTO of its intentions under international trade rules.
"Effectively what we are doing is freeing our hand to raise our tariff levels," he said.
The Commission has said it would slap heavy duties on a range of US goods including fruit juice and textiles if Washington did not offer European producers wide exemptions from steel duties introduced in March and provides compensation in the form of lower tariffs on other goods.
A final decision on whether to go ahead with sanctions will be made after the Commission reports back to EU states on July 19th about negotiations with Washington over exemptions and compensation.
Washington has already granted some exemptions from the tariffs, imposed at 30 per cent on a range of steel products, but European producers are hoping for more.