Ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Washington, the German government has expressed scepticism over permanent exemption for the EU from US customs duties of 25% on imports of steel and 10% on aluminium imports which came into effect on 23 March. The EU has been provisionally exempted from these duties until 1 May. At his meetings with American President Donald Trump this week, President Emmanuel Macron of France also called for the exemption from the duties to be made permanent.
“At the present time, we have to work from the principle that the customs duties will be imposed on 1 May. We’ll have to see what we’re going to do”, said a source close to Merkel on Thursday 26 April, referring to the package of counter measures prepared by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11983).
“The chancellor’s position is that we prefer to negotiate but that would require a lasting exemption from the customs duties”, the source is quoted by AFP as saying.
Trump has several times publicly criticised what, in his view, are Germany’s unfair trade practices. Germany enjoys a considerable trade surplus with the United States and Trump has threatened action against the German motor car sector.
Visiting the US president at the start of the week, President Macron was given no guarantee of any softening of Trump’s position on trade.
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called on 18 April for the EU to be granted permanent and unconditional exemption from the American customs duties on steel and aluminium.
To try to resolve the matter, Malmström and US Trade Secretary Wilbur Ross opened a process of dialogue on transatlantic trade disputes on 21 March. For the moment, no tangible results have been delivered (see EUROPE 11986 and 11988).
Macron argues for multilateralism. Addressing the US Congress on Wednesday 25 April, President Macron called on the US to stick with multilateralism, urging joint, concerted responses to current security, climate protection and trade challenges.
“A trade war among allies is not consistent with our task, our history and our commitments on world security. We can deliver the right answer to legitimate concerns through negotiation at the WTO”, he argued. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)