The decision was announced by the European Commission on the morning of 19 December: just a few days before 1 January 2024, which would have seen the return to force of the ‘rebalancing’ tariffs imposed by the EU on certain products from the United States, the two parties finally agreed to extend the suspension of these tariffs until 31 March 2025.
These tariffs were initially implemented by the EU in 2018 in response to new US ‘Section 232’ tariffs on European steel and aluminium exports.
The suspension of both US tariffs and European customs duties was agreed in 2022 to enable the EU and the US to find a lasting solution in the form of a trade agreement.
However, the negotiations have not resulted in a compromise acceptable to both parties and are still ongoing (see EUROPE 13301/16).
The summit between the EU and the US last October failed to produce any major breakthrough, and a number of senior European officials had put forward the idea of maintaining the status quo as the deadline approached (see EUROPE 13276/1).
In the absence of a trade agreement, the United States and the EU have therefore agreed to extend the suspension of tariffs, with Washington promising to provide further tariff exclusions for EU exporters.
For the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, this extension serves “two key EU objectives”: “ first, we are giving our importers and exporters the stability and confidence to continue to trade smoothly. Second, it provides us with the necessary space to continue pursuing the full and permanent removal of tariffs on EU exports (...)”.
In 2022, the EU exported 3.8 million metric tonnes of steel to the United States, of which 1.7 million metric tonnes benefited from duty-free treatment under US legislation. As for aluminium, in 2022 the EU exported 289 thousand metric tonnes of aluminium to the United States, of which just under half (146 thousand tonnes) was exempt from customs duties.
The EU and the United States now have 1 year and 3 months to finalise a lasting trade agreement. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)