EU vows swift riposte as Trump kicks off transatlantic trade war

Source: France 24

May 31, 2018 at 19:54

EU vows swift riposte as Trump kicks off transatlantic trade war - France 24

The European Union will retaliate swiftly to the United States’ decision to impose harsh tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker announced Thursday, saying it was a “bad day” for trade.

The 28-nation bloc “will announce in the next coming hours counter-balancing measures,” Juncker told a conference in Brussels after Washington said new tariffs would be effective from 0400 GMT Friday.

“This is a bad day for world trade,” Juncker said. “The European Union cannot react to that without any kind of reaction.”

It’s a bad day for world trade. US leaves us no choice but to proceed with a WTO dispute settlement case and the imposition of additional duties on a number of US imports. We will defend the EU’s interests, in full compliance with international trade law. https://t.co/J3wPW5Ew7K pic.twitter.com/aDlOWcSgRv
— Jean-Claude Juncker (@JunckerEU) May 31, 2018

In anticipation of the Trump decision, the EU already drew up a long list of counter-measures against the US, which would include equivalent duties on a whole range of products including cranberries, motorcycles and bourbon whiskey.

Europe exports around five billion euros ($4 billion) worth of steel and a billion euros worth of aluminium to the United States each year, and the commission estimates Trump’s tariffs will affect some 2.8 billion euros in business.

As a precautionary measure, the European Commission, which handles trade matters for the EU, notified the World Trade Organization of eventual counter duties on May 18 that could come into force 30 days later.

The commission is now detailing those measures, but the final decision to greenlight the counter-measures falls to the EU’s 28 member states.

‘Europe united’

In France Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, junior minister of foreign affairs, said “France disapproves of these unjustified and unjustifiable measures.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pledged: “Our answer to ‘America First’ can only be ‘Europe united’”.

Juncker said that the EU would also launch a dispute settlement procedure against the United States at the WTO, a legal process that could take years.