The European Union will delay a few days the entry into force of the new tariffs with which it will respond to the commercial war of Donald Trump. The initial decision of the European Commission was to reintroduce as of April 1 the rates with which it responded in 2018, including products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Bourbon whiskey or Levi’s jeans. And in a second phase, as of April 12, impose restrictive measures to more products to reach the value of 26,000 million euros, which is the damage that Trump will inflict to the European economy with 25% of tariffs on steel and aluminum. Finally, the two packages will be launched in the middle of next month.
“This provides additional time for discussions with the US administration,” says Community sources about the decision, which also seeks to have room to stipulate the set of measures with which the EU intends to respond in terms proportional to the damage caused by the commercial war resigned by Trump.
“Our goal is to achieve an adequate balance between the products, taking into account the interests of EU producers, exporters and consumers. The change represents a slight adjustment of the calendar and does not reduce the impact of our response, in particular because the EU continues to prepare for reprisals of up to 26,000 million euros,” these sources point out.
Although the Commissioner for Commerce and Economic Security, Maros šefčovič, has stressed in the European Parliament that trusts in achieving a “mutually agreed solution” with the Trump administration, has also recognized that the delay allows member states and interested parties to work “simultaneously” in the two listings.
The first was expected to enter into effect automatically on April 1, which is the date on which the current suspension expires under the agreement reached with the Biden administration in 2021. That package has a value of 8,000 million euros, so the EU wants to expand the list until reaching 26,000 million euros.
And that is where you have to work until March 26 in the elaboration of the complete list. The proposal published by the European Commission on March 12 covers a large range of American products for an amount of 21,000 million with the intention of ‘cleaning it’ until it is left at 18,000 million euros so that the response is proportional to Trump’s tariffs.
“This approach allows us to give a firm, proportionate, solid and well calibrated response to US measures, at the same time minimizing the possible negative repercussions on EU producers and consumers,” community sources argue.
Trump reacted to the announcement of Brussels, which also seeks to “hit where it hurts” the US economy trying to pass the lowest possible invoice to the European industry and focusing on the Republican states, threatening with a 200% tariff to the wine, the champagne and other alcoholic beverages exported from the EU. That would be a hard blow to economies like Spanish, whose second most exported product to the US is wine.
In his angry answer, Trump pointed to the “evil tariff” to whiskey. “If this tariff is not eliminated immediately, the US will soon impose a 200% rate to wine, champagne and alcoholic beverages that leave France and other EU countries. It will be great for wine and champagne businesses in the US,” he said on his social network. The EU intends to give margin to both internal and Washington.
Source: www.eldiario.es
