The EU prepares 'countermeasures' if a tariff deal with the US crumbles

Key Points

• The EU has prepared an “expanded list of countermeasures” that will automatically take effect on July 14 if ongoing trade talks with the US fail to yield a balanced outcome.
• President Trump’s surprise imposition of a 50% steel tariff midway through a 90-day truce rattled global markets and imperiled broader tariff negotiations with Brussels.
• While the EU is willing to buy more US liquefied natural gas, defense items and lower car duties, it refuses to scrap its value‐added tax or open up to American beef.
• Brussels continues to push its “zero-for-zero” proposal, which would remove all industrial goods tariffs on both sides, despite Trump’s initial dismissal of the idea.

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The European Union on Monday said it is preparing “countermeasures” against the United States after the Trump administration's surprise tariffs on steel rattled global markets and complicated the ongoing, wider tariff negotiations between Brussels and Washington.

Last week, ahead of Friday's surprise announcement, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to “accelerate talks” on a deal. “In the event that our negotiations do not lead to a balanced outcome, the EU is prepared to impose countermeasures, including in response to this latest tariff increase,” European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill told a press conference in Brussels.

He said the EU is finalizing an expanded list of countermeasures that would automatically take effect on July 14 or earlier. That’s the date when a 90-day pause, intended to ease negotiations, ends in tariffs announced by the two economic powerhouses on each other. About halfway through that grace period, Trump announced a 50% tariffs on steel imports.

Trump’s return to the White House has come with an unrivaled barrage of tariffs, with levies threatened, added and, often, taken away. Top officials at the EU’s executive commission says they’re pushing hard for a trade deal to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods.

Negotiations will continue on Wednesday in Paris in a meeting between the EU’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, and his counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The EU could buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., and lower duties on cars, but it isn't likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax — which is akin to a sales tax — or open up the EU to American beef.

The EU has offered the U.S. a “zero for zero” outcome in which tariffs would be removed on both sides for industrial goods including autos. Trump has dismissed that, but EU officials have said it’s still on the table.

The announcement Friday of a staggering 50% levy on steel imports stoked fear that big-ticket purchases from cars to washing machines to houses could see major price increases. But those metals are also so ubiquitous in packaging that they’re likely to pack a punch across consumer products.