The European Union has officially laid out a three-pronged approach for striking back against President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on aluminum and steel.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Wednesday that if the Trump administration sticks to its plan, the bloc will bring a case against the U.S. tariffs at the World Trade Organization, possibly in cooperation with other trading partners.
She noted that the U.S. had cited a threat to its national security as the rationale for introducing the trade measures.
“We have serious doubt about that justification. We cannot see how the European Union—friends and allies in NATO—can be a threat to national security in the U.S.,” Malmstrom said at a press conference in Brussels. “We find that assumption deeply unjust.”
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In addition, the EU will trigger WTO-allowed measures to protect its industries from the effect of the American tariffs, she said. A third step is to impose its own duties on a range of products imported from the U.S.
“A trade war has no winners,” Malmstrom said. “We have no intention of escalating, but can also not just stay silent when such a major measure would be taken to the European economy.”
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Since Trump’s trade announcement on March 1, EU officials have been working with the 28-member countries and the bloc’s trading partners to decide on a joint response, she said.
They have put together a provisional list of American products that would face higher duties when imported into the EU, and this list is now under consideration for signoff, according to Malmstrom.
The list covers steel, industrial goods and agricultural products such as cranberries, orange juice, and peanut butter. It is also understood to include iconic items such as Harley-Davidson Inc. HOG, -0.97% motorcycles and Levi’s jeans. In total, the new levies would add up to a total of $3.5 billion for producers.
There are indications that Trump plans to sign off on the global tariff of 25% on steel and of 10% on aluminum “very soon”, Malmstrom said.