The European Union on Monday said it is preparing “countermeasures” against the United States, according to the Associated Press.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed last week to “accelerate talks” on a deal, but that if those trade negotiations fail “then we are also prepared to accelerate our work on the defensive side,” European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill told a press conference in Brussels.
He said the EU is finalizing an “expanded list of countermeasures” that would “automatically take effect on July 14 or earlier.” That’s the date when a 90-day pause, intended to ease negotiations, ends in tariffs announced by the two economic powerhouses on each other. About halfway through that grace period, Trump announced a 50% tariff on steel imports.
Trump’s return to the White House has come with an unrivaled barrage of tariffs, with levies threatened, added and, often, taken away. Top officials at the EU’s executive commission say they’re pushing hard for a trade deal to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods.
The EU could possibly buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., as well as lower duties on cars, but it isn’t likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax — which is akin to a sales tax — or open up the EU to American beef.
The EU has offered the US a “zero for zero” outcome in which tariffs would be removed on both sides industrial goods including autos. Trump has dismissed that but EU officials have said it’s still on the table.
