On Monday 14 July, the European Commission sent Member States the second list of US products that could be subject to tariffs if negotiations with Washington fail. The document, the result of consultations with the EU27 and European industry, targets imports from the United States at €72 billion, rather than €95 billion. If this second package were adopted, it would be in addition to the first wave of measures affecting €24.5 billion of US exports to the EU (see EUROPE 13598/1), which have been suspended until 3 August.
Highly strategic sectors. The second list includes the vast majority of industrial products (over €65 billion) in the automotive, aviation, machinery, chemicals and medical equipment sectors, according to the list obtained by Agence Europe.
Exports of US agri-food products to the EU would also be affected, to the tune of €6 billion. For the time being, the European Commission has kept whisky and bourbon on the list, despite requests from France and Ireland to remove them to avoid reprisals against European spirits.
On Monday 14 July in Brussels, the EU agriculture ministers expressed the hope that the Commission and the US administration would reach an agreement within the next two weeks to avoid tariffs on both sides in the agri-food sector.
The restrictions that the European Commission plans to impose on European exports to the EU have also been revised downwards: €94 million, not €4.4 billion. The vast majority of these would be steel (‘scrap metals’), exports that the EU already wants to restrict as part of its strategy to support demand for recycled steel in the EU.
Asked on Tuesday 15 July about the timetable for this second list of countermeasures, the European Commission would not give details of its plans for getting the package adopted. The Commission’s trade spokesman, Olof Gill, simply repeated that neither the first nor the second list would come into force before 1 August, to give the negotiations with the US administration every chance.
To see the list of products: https://aeur.eu/f/hvr (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with Lionel Changeur)