EU will react against 'unlawful' US tariffs, says European Commission

euronews (in English)

The European executive has announced that it would retaliate against US tariffs on aluminium and steel if they are confirmed, considering them unlawful and counterproductive.

Transcript

00:00The European Commission said on Monday it would take action to protect the interests

00:11of European businesses and consumers if Donald Trump moves towards his threat to raise tariffs

00:17on aluminium and steel imports to 25%.

00:25Free trade advocates, meanwhile, believe that trade barriers would significantly harm growth.

00:32There is a lot of interdependence and the modern world trade is interdependent.

00:37Many products, the varying components of such products are manufactured in different countries.

00:44As we learned during the COVID experience and the vaccine manufacturing experience,

00:49I mean up to 50 countries were involved in different components of one vaccine, which

00:54illustrates the interdependence, the complexity of supply chains.

01:00The three largest exporters of steel and aluminium to the US are Canada, China and Mexico.

01:07In Europe, Germany, Italy, France and Austria, all of whom export metals across the Atlantic,

01:13would be the most affected by any imposition of tariffs.

01:18Trump already introduced tariffs on aluminium and steel during his first term at the White

01:22House.

01:23They were then replaced with quotas under Joe Biden.

01:28We could do as we did the last time around and retaliate on specific goods in the US.

01:33Last time we put in place tariffs on Harley Davidson motorcycles and jeans and stuff like that.

01:40And then, of course, the EU could do as it did on steel back then and impose a safeguard

01:45action, which is a tariff wall in the EU in general to protect EU producers.

01:52That is still in place since we imposed it in 2019 and it will run until 2026.

01:59These measurements could also potentially be counterproductive for the US.

02:03The impact for the United States is precisely the opposite of what Trump promised, which

02:08is to bring down inflation, to improve the economy.

02:12And I think what Europeans need to bear in mind is that Trump is not immune to political

02:18gravity.

02:20Another possibility is that Donald Trump could also use tariff threats in order to gain leverage,

02:25pushing EU member states towards increasing their defense spending or reducing regulation

02:30of the technology sector.

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