Companies from European Union will have to pay customs duties on exports of steel and aluminium to United States. That was announced by US economics minister Wilbur Ross in a conference call. The announcement came shortly before expiry of a deadline that President Donald Trump had set for negotiations with European Union. The talks of past few weeks would not have resulted in a satisfactory result, said Ross.

The derogation provided by 1 June also runs for US neighbours Canada and Mexico, with which United States is in process of negotiating continuation of Joint Free Trade Agreement NAFTA. "We look forward to continuing negotiations with Mexico and Canada on one hand and with European Commission on or," said Ross. There are or problems to solve.

Trump has repeatedly lamented a blatant imbalance at expense of US in trade with Europe. For months, Europeans had argued with government in Washington about announced tariffs of 25 percent on imports of steel products and ten percent on aluminium. The EU demanded that duties be exempted unconditionally and indefinitely. Only n should we talk about possible trade facilitation for US economy. Ross said, "We were not ready to meet this condition."

Trump had also threatened with inches on cars from Germany. It justifies this with national security. The EU does, however, levy tariffs on US cars. As an alternative to tariffs on aluminium and steel, United States introduced export ceilings for discussion. According to calculations by US Department of Commerce, this would have same effect on targeted higher utilisation of US steel industry as import duties.

EU plans its own tariffs

Until recently, a compromise had been reached. However, a crisis discussion between EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Ross on fringes of a conference of industrialised countries organisation OECD in Paris did not reach agreement on Wednesday.

The EU had previously announced customs duties on US products such as motorcycles, whiskey and jeans. Immediately following announcement by US government, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced that EU would already be responding to new tariffs in coming hours. "This is a bad day for world trade," said Juncker. Minister Ross warned Europeans of an escalation. At same time, he told US channel CNBC that countermeasures from EU or ors would probably not have a major impact on US economy.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) announced that EU will respond "wisely, decisively and collectively". She agreed with partners in European Union that se duties were incompatible with rules of World Trade Organisation, said Chancellor in Lisbon after a meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa. Government spokesman Steffen Sally said: "We consider this unilateral measure to be unlawful, stated reasons of national security do not bear."

USA: EU countermeasures would not have a major impact

At Federal Association of German Industry It was said that Trump risked a setback of transatlantic partnership for many decades. "His uncompromising approach is shortsighted and self-destructive," said BDI president Dieter Kempf. The External Trade association BGA spoke of a "very black hour for transatlantic relations". In this dispute re were no winners, it was said in a communication.

Employer President Ingo Kramer called decision a turning-off in transatlantic trade. Trump is putting a dangerous spiral of protectionism in motion. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry also reacted with criticism. The German car manufacturers are hoping for furr talks to defuse trade dispute with state supreme discuss. The Kooperationund agreement on free and Fair trade should be sought, said president of VDA Automobile Association, Bernhard Mattes.

Like EU, Mexico has also announced countermeasures. For example, import duties should be levied on us products such as pork bellies, grapes, apples and flat steel. They remained in force as long as US levied its duties on steel and aluminium imports.

Date Of Update: 01 June 2018, 12:02