European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and US Trade Secretary Wilbur Ross agreed over the phone on Thursday 15 March to meet next week but the details of the meeting have still to be decided upon, to discuss the customs duty issued on 8 March by US President Donald Trump which will come into force on 23 March and hit aluminium and steel imports into the United States, EUROPE learned from close European Commission sources on Thursday 15 March.
"The commissioner reiterated that the EU, as a close security ally of the US, expects to be fully excluded from these measures as a whole. She also pointed out that the EU and the US are both affected by global overcapacity in these areas, and that the two should address the issue together", explained the source.
The European Commission wanted to ensure that the exemption for the EU from the 25% customs duty on steel imports and the 10% levy on aluminium imports into the United States still stands. The duty is being imposed for national security reasons under 'section 232' of the Trade expansion Act of 1962 (see EUROPE 11973). The source added that contact with the US administration will continue over the next few days.
Malmström told the European Parliament on Wednesday 14 March that the European Commission is working on a package of possible counter-measures, including appealing to the WTO, safeguard measures and €2.8 billion of retaliatory measures that would apply to US products (see EUROPE 11976).
"Deep concern" at Council of EU. Preparing for the European summit of 22 and 23 March, to which European Council President Donald Tusk has added the EU's trade policy and the US tariffs on steel and aluminium, the member states’ representatives to the EU expressed "deep concern" on Thursday evening, saying that they support potential rebalancing measures but want to avoid any escalation of trade reprisals, explained a close EU source.
The source said dialogue was underway with the US and there was not yet any paragraph on the US measures in the draft conclusions document for the European Council, but all delegations were on alert, and adding that the legitimate right to self-defence, avoiding a trade war, support for dialogue and unity of the EU might be included.
The paragraph of the draft document on trade policy notes "the European Council reaffirms its commitment to an open and rules-based multilateral trading system with WTO at its core, firm in the belief that free and fair trade is one of the most powerful engines for growth, supporting millions of jobs and contributing to prosperity" and had not been changed on Thursday evening. It goes on: "the European Council encourages progress on all ongoing negotiations for ambitious and balanced free trade agreement, in particular with Mexico and Mercosur". (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)