EU demands permanent exemption from US metal tariffs

Cecilia Malmström
Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s Commissioner for Trade, has been in contact with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in recent weeks to try and resolve the tariff issue Credit: FRANCOIS LENOIR/REUTERS

The EU Commission has hit back at the US administration for delaying rather than calling off plans to impose tariffs on some metal imports.

Some countries and trading blocs including the EU and Canada were granted temporary exemptions from the taxes earlier this year. As part of the EU, the UK was also covered by this special treatment. At midnight on April 30 this exemption was due to expire and was extended for 30 days.

The decision to postpone, rather than scrap the taxes on US imports of steel and aluminium, at 25pc and 10pc respectively, “prolongs market uncertainty”, the European Commission said.

The EC also hit back at the notion that it was responsible for dumping cheap steel on world markets - a situation the US is seeking to tackle by imposing the tariffs.

“Overcapacity in the steel and aluminium sectors does not originate in the EU. On the contrary the EU has over the past months engaged at all possible levels with the US and other partners to find a solution to this issue,” the EC said.

Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s Commissioner for Trade, had been in contact with US commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in recent weeks, and will continue to discuss the matter, the EC confirmed.

The market uncertainty generated by the potential levies on metals was “already affecting business decisions” the EC said.

It added: “The EU should be permanently exempted from these measures, as they cannot be justified on the grounds of national security.”

This references World Trade Organisation rules, the body that policies global trade, which allows protectionist measures to be made on the grounds of national security. The US has claimed that the tariffs fall under this special status. Others, including China and the EU, have argued against this.

When the US tariffs were first announced the EU set out a range of retaliatory measures. These involved taxes on products the EU imports from politically sensitive US midterm election areas. Targets included Levi’s jeans, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon whisky.