The European Union will prepare countermeasures to the multitude of US tariffs imposed on EU imports during President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause, with all options on the table, European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said yesterday.
The EU trade chief said US tariffs now covered 70 per cent of EU goods trade to the US and that could rise to 97pc after further US investigations into pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other products.
Sefcovic said a negotiated solution with the US remained the EU’s clear and preferred outcome.
“We now need the US to show its readiness to make progress towards a fair and balanced solution,” he told a debate in the European Parliament. The 27-nation bloc faces 25pc US import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and “reciprocal” tariffs of 10pc for almost all other goods that could rise to 20pc after Trump’s 90-day pause.
Sefcovic said the European Union would use the pause until July 8 to prepare further rebalancing measures and ensure a level playing field if talks failed.
“All options remain on the table here,” Sefcovic said. The European Union has suspended its own countermeasures against the steel tariffs to give room for negotiations, although they appear to have made only limited progress.
Sefcovic said the EU would also guard against possible surges of imports due to trade diverted by Trump’s tariff wall.
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