ECONOMY: European Union reacts after taxes announced by Trump on aluminium and steel …
Donald Trump wants his trade war , he will have it. The European Union is preparing retaliatory measures against companies including ‘Harley-Davidson, Bourbon and Levi’s’ after the US President announces plans to heavily tax imports of steel and aluminum into the United States .
“We are going to put in place countermeasures on import duties on American products, including Harley-Davidson, Bourbon and Levi’s jeans,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday night. a reception with the mayor of Hamburg (northern Germany).
If the United States wants to establish barriers, “we will be as stupid” as them, warned Jean-Claude Juncker, stating that it would have “preferred that we did not do it”. “I regret his choice (…) but Europe must defend itself and it will defend itself,” he explained.
Trump improvise
Earlier in the afternoon, the President of the European Commission said that the EU would not “sit back when European industry and jobs are threatened”, adding that “Europe (had ) need of a commercial policy able to defend itself: we will not be naive “.
Donald Trump announced on Thursday night his intention to impose next week tariffs of 25% for steel and 10% for aluminum on imports into the United States to protect the domestic steel industry. He did not say, however, which countries would be targeted. According to NBC, the US president and his trade secretary had not prepared any review of the measures and did not brief anyone.
War can still be avoided
In the middle of the day Friday, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Jyrki Katainen, nevertheless felt with AFP that it remained “a window of opportunity” to avoid a trade war with the United States.
He explained that these European countermeasures, already “ready for some time”, would be in conformity with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and that they would offset in value the potential losses for the European industry , the world’s second largest steel producer after China.
