The escalation of the commercial war is already a reality. Donald Trump has continued with the threat of imposing 25% tariffs on European steel and aluminum and, just one hour after they formally entered into force, the European Commission has responded with “countermeasures provided” to the damage that the “unfair and unjustified” rates of the United States will make the European economy. The calculation of community services is that the value of EU tariffs will amount to 26,000 million euros and the response will affect a similar market, although in two phases, with the intention of “hitting where it hurts” and, especially, in the economy of the states that vote republican.
Quick Via: April 1
The fast track is the reintroduction as of April 1 of the tariffs that the EU imposed in 2018 to the US after the first Trump envite. The products that will be affected, for a value of 8,000 million euros, will go from the LEVI’s jeans to the Harley-Davidson motorcycles through the Bourbon whiskey, cosmetic, agricultural products or even vessels. The EU tried to damage that country in symbolic products or that were manufactured in the most pro-trump states.
This effect will be multiplied on this occasion in the second phase of EU tariffs, which will enter into force on April 13, given that steel tariffs and aluminum by the United States go from 10 to 25%, so to respond for the same amount, the EU must increase its objectives.
This Wednesday the European Commission has formally launched a consultation process (it has already touched the Member States in previous phases) that will culminate on March 26. The list made in Brussels affects a very wide range of products for an amount of 21,000 million euros that, during the next weeks, aspires to reduce 18,000 million. Therefore, some of the products that appear in that 99 pages document They will disappear.
A list to negotiate
In those 99 pages the products that appear, and those that in principle will be imposed a generic 25%tariff, are very varied: steel and aluminum products, textiles, leather items, appliances (refrigerators, stoves, ovens, freezers …), domestic tools (such as short grass), plastics and wood products. Also from the primary sector, such as poultry, beef, certain sea products, peel fruits, eggs, dairy products, sugar and vegetables. This list includes, however, some products, such as cava or the wine denomination of Rioja origin that will not be affected because they are not imported, as these sources explain, which suggest that they appear as part of the codes that have been included in the relationship.
“There are European alternatives to the Harley-Davidson”
“In our answer we try to be intelligent and try to hit where it hurts. That means we have a list of products that have a high iconic or symbolic value, which do not cost us much, but that will cost the US, ”explain community sources:“ Harley-Davidson may like us, but we have many European alternatives ”.
“We love soybeans, but we don’t mind buying it in Brazil, in Argentina or anywhere else,” they express those same sources about the products that have been chosen to respond to the US. Beyond the possibility of finding European alternatives or in other countries that, for the most part, are also EU partners and affected by Trump’s commercial war, products have been thought to a large extent because of their origin within the US. And as was done in 2018 to fully punish Republican states.
Trump’s autocastigo
For example, soybeans occurs fundamentally in Lousiana, the state of the ultra -conservator Mike Johson, which presides over the House of Representatives. Wood, which is another of the products that it is intended by hits, is important in Alabama, Virginia or Georgia, where Trump was imposed. These sources consider that “pressure on the American system” must be put, although they admit that it will end up damaging companies from Democratic states as California.
In Brussels they also consider that Trump’s tariffs “are not very intelligent” because they include raw materials necessary for their production chain and will therefore affect the country’s economy. According to the European Commission, the ‘Autocastigo’ will amount to 6,000 million euros. “They are not really taking into account what the US economy needs to be able to produce,” say those sources, which remember that cars production, which is one of the sectors that obsess Trump, depend largely on the European steel and aluminum to which it has imposed a 25% extra rate.
Open door to negotiations
Despite the escalation of the Commercial War, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, keeps the hand laid to Washington to try to reach an agreement. Thus, last month the Commissioner of Commerce and Economic Security, Maros Sefcvovic, met with his American counterpart to try to bring positions. After that encounter, the Slovak opened the door to lower the current tariffs on US vehicles, which are 10% compared to the 2.5% imposed by that country.
However, Trump has intensified his offensive against Europe, although in the last hours his government has filed roughness with the Ukrainian Volodimir Zelenski. In fact, von der Leyen waiting for Trump for months. In addition, it intends to go further and impose what it considers “reciprocal tariffs” for taxes that exist in the EU, such as VAT. It also maintains the threat of retaliation against the EU by the laws that regulate the digital environment and that platforms such as goal or x breach risking multimillionaire fines.
In Brussels they are willing to respond with everything, even with the anti-coercion instrument, a tool to respond to the commercial blackmail that he designed after Trump’s first mandate. That stage has not yet been reached and what they maintain in the EU is that it is necessary to keep the bridges and respond in a proportionate way.
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