The EU leadership has resigned itself to the fact that the union will not be able to avoid the introduction of tariffs on imports of European goods by US President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported, citing two senior European Union diplomats.
Trump's tariff policy is becoming a new reality in which Europe will have to exist. The main goal of EU diplomats is now to achieve a reduction in the amount of tariffs imposed by the US, to protect sensitive sectors of the economy and to prevent further tightening of trade restrictions by Washington.
The EU's negotiating positions in the dialogue with the US on tariffs will be based on pointing out the deep interdependence of the two economies and presenting assessments of the potential damage that will be caused to America by its own policies. At the same time, it is important that these assessments are conveyed personally to Trump during his bilateral meetings with EU leaders.
Earlier, the European Commission (EC) announcedthat it was taking “swift and proportionate countermeasures against US imports into the EU“ in response to the introduction of new US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the Union. The EC statement said that overall, "the EU's retaliatory measures could affect US exports worth up to €26 billion, equivalent to the economic scale of the US tariffs". US President Donald Trump has vowed to respond to the EU's countermeasures against US goods. On 10 February, Trump ordered the imposition of a 25% tariff on all foreign steel and aluminium imports to the US. The decision, which takes effect on 12 March, applies to imports from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Japan.