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Photo: iStock / Dmytro Varavin
The European Union is preparing to respond to recently-announced tariffs from the Trump administration, with plans to vote on retaliatory levies on April 9.
The New York Times reports that EU leaders have been circulating a list of potential U.S. imports to target with new tariffs. Once that process is finalized, the bloc will put it to a vote, and then if the plan is approved, the levies will be implemented starting on April 15. Early versions of the list reportedly included goods such as whiskey, boats, clothing and soybeans.
On April 2, President Donald Trump announced baseline 10% tariffs on all imports into the U.S., as well as higher rates for countries with which the U.S. has the largest trade deficits. The EU was among the countries targeted for higher levies, and unless it comes to an arrangement with the U.S., 20% tariffs against the bloc will come into force on April 9.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Trade Minister Maros Sefcovic announced on April 7 that the bloc had previously offered to drop existing tariffs on American cars and industrial goods such as rubber and machinery, although they also signaled a willingness to defend the EU's trade interests if necessary. Sefcovic pushed back against a proposal from White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro to have the EU drop its value-added taxes as well, according to The Guardian.
Read More: Supply Chains Brace for Fallout From Trump Tariffs
“While the EU remains open to and strongly prefers negotiations, we will not wait endlessly,” Sefcovic said. “We are prepared to use every tool in our trade defense arsenal.”
EU members have been divided on how exactly to address trade with the U.S. in the months to come. While Northern European countries have pushed for an aggressive response to the Trump administration, leaders in Italy and Spain have cautioned against the impacts of what they believe would be a "lose-lose" conflict.
“We should not press the panic button,” Italy's Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said at an April 5 conference, reported by Bloomberg. "We must try to keep a cool head, evaluate the impact, and avoid a policy of retaliatory tariffs which would just be damaging for all, and especially for us.”
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