The EU is ready for a trade confrontation with the US

Investing.com – Statements by European Union representatives on trade relations with the United States are getting tougher in recent days, Brussels is dissatisfied with both the general direction of US President Donald Trump’s trade policy and with separate measures, including duties on aluminum and steel imports and the resumption of sanctions against Iran.

Foreign trade issues are among the most important on the agenda of the EU summit – the Western Balkans in Sofia on Thursday.

On Thursday, the European Commission (EC) issued a document providing for the possibility of introducing a reciprocal duty on imports from the United States of goods worth a total of 2.8 billion euros per year. Fees at a rate of 25% can be entered from June, 20th.

The European Commission also left itself the opportunity to expand the response in the future.

“Despite the fact that the US characterizes these measures as providing security, in fact, they are special protective measures,” the decision of the EC says. “They include actions that distort the balance of concessions and obligations arising from the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement, , and limit imports in order to protect domestic industry from foreign competition and ensure its commercial prosperity. “

Members of the WTO have the right to introduce special protective measures in cases where increased imports of a product from third countries cause or threaten to cause serious damage to local producers, but they should strive to maintain the existing volume of agreements and concessions within the WTO.

D.Trump, from March 23, introduced a 25% duty on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports, but granted temporary exceptions for Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the EU, Australia and Argentina.

On Wednesday, European Council Chairman Donald Tusk said that the EU will try to persuade the US administration to abandon the increased duties on imports of aluminum and steel from Europe.

The EU wants to get the US permanently exempted from new duties, in return “we are ready to discuss the mutual reduction of trade barriers,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who arrived in Sofia to attend the summit, told journalists on Thursday. She admitted that the agreement with Iran is not ideal, but it needs to be preserved, refined, and negotiated with Tehran on the basis of this agreement, reports Bloomberg.

The European Union is considering the possibility of imposing duties on goods from the United States as one of the options for responding to the resumption of US sanctions against Iran, EU Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Gunther Oettinger said in an interview with German radio station Deutschlandfunk on Thursday.

“You can impose your own fees, because Americans also have important goods and services in the industry, in the digital industry, which they want to sell in the European market,” he said.

“Trump despises the weaklings, if we step down step by step, if we silently agree, if we become a junior partner of the United States, then we will lose,” G. Oettinger believes.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, during a press conference in Sofia, called for the separation of trade and interaction with Iran in relations with the US.