BRUSSELS: Major trade partners swiftly hit back at President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, imposing stiff new taxes on US products, from textiles and water heaters to beef and bourbon. Canada, the largest supplier of steel and aluminum to the US, said on Wednesday it will place 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on steel products and also raise taxes on a host of items: tools, computers and servers, display monitors, sports equipment and cast-iron products.
Across the Atlantic, the European Union (EU) will raise tariffs on American beef, poultry, bourbon and motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans. Combined, the new tariffs will cost companies billions of dollars, and further escalate the uncertainty in two of the world’s major trade partnerships. Companies will either take the losses and earn fewer profits, or, more likely, pass costs along to consumers in the form of higher prices.
Prices will go up, in Europe and the United States, and jobs are at stake, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said. The EU duties aim for pressure points in the US while minimising additional damage to Europe. EU officials have made clear that the tariffs — taxes on imports — are aimed at products made in Republican-held states, such as beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska and wood products from Alabama and Georgia. The tariffs will also hit blue states such as Illinois, the No. 1 US producer of soybeans, which are also on the list.
Spirits producers have become collateral damage in the dispute over steel and aluminum. The EU move “is deeply disappointing and will severely undercut the successful efforts to rebuild US spirits exports in EU countries”, said Chris Swonger, head of the Distilled Spirits Council. The EU is a major destination for US whisky, with exports surging 60 per cent in the past three years after an earlier set of tariffs was suspended. Could there be an agreement that takes increasing tariffs off the table? Von der Leyen said in a statement that the EU “will always remain open to negotiation”.
Canada’s incoming Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday he is ready to meet with Trump if he shows “respect for Canadian sovereignty” and is willing to take “a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade”. Carney, who will be sworn on Friday, said workers in both countries will be better off when “the greatest economic and security partnership in the world is renewed, relaunched. That is possible”.
“We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs,” she said. The American Chamber of Commerce to the EU said the US tariffs and EU countermeasures “will only harm jobs, prosperity and security on both sides of the Atlantic”. “The two sides must de-escalate and find a negotiated outcome urgently,” the chamber said on Wednesday.
What will actually happen?
Trump slapped similar tariffs on EU steel and aluminum during his first term in office, which enraged European and other allies. The EU also imposed countermeasures in retaliation at the time, raising tariffs on US-made motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans, among other items. This time, the EU action will involve two steps. First on April 1, the commission will reimpose taxes that were in effect from 2018 and 2020, but which were suspended under the Biden administration. Then on April 13 come the additional duties targeting 18 billion euros (USD 19.6 billion) in US exports to the bloc.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefcovic travelled to Washington last month in an effort to head off the tariffs, meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other top trade officials. He said on Wednesday that it became clear during the trip “that the EU is not the problem”. “I argued to avoid the unnecessary burden of measures and countermeasures, but you need a partner for that. You need both hands to clap,” Šefcovic told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Canada is imposing, as of 12:01 am on Thursday, 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on steel products worth 12.6 billion Canadian dollars (USD 8.7 billion) and aluminum products worth 3 billion Canadian dollars (USD 2 billion) as well as additional imported US goods worth 14.2 billion Canadian dollars (USD 9.9 billion) for a total of 29.8 billion Canadian dollars (USD 20.6 billion.) The list of additional products affected by counter-tariffs includes tools, computers and servers, display monitors, water heaters, sport equipment and cast-iron products.
These tariffs are in addition to Canada’s 25 per cent counter tariffs on 30 billion Canadian dollars (USD 20.8 billion) of imports from the US that were put in place on March 4 in response to other Trump tariffs that he has delayed by a month. European steel companies brace for losses The EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports, according to the European steel association Eurofer. The US is the second-biggest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16 per cent of the total EU steel exports.
The EU estimates that annual trade volume between both sides stands at about USD 1.5 trillion, representing around 30 per cent of global trade. While the bloc has a substantial export surplus in goods, it says that is partly offset by the US surplus in the trade of services.
