EU halts retaliatory tariffs against US to "give negotiations a chance"!
The European Union has suspended counter-tariffs against the United States to pursue further talks with the Donald Trump administration on how to resolve what until a few hours ago was shaping up as an all-out trade war.
The counter-tariffs, imposed in response to Trump's duties on steel and aluminum, were approved by member states on Wednesday, targeting almost 21 billion euros in American products, such as soybeans, copper and motorcycles.
The first tranche, worth 3.9 billion euros, was supposed to come into effect on April 15. But that will no longer be the case.
"We want to give negotiations a chance," said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in a brief statement.
"While we finalize the adoption of EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our member states, we will put them on hold for 90 days," she added. "If the negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will be launched."
Von der Leyen's decision comes just hours after Trump announced that his self-proclaimed "reciprocal tariffs" would be suspended for 90 days.
The bloc was initially hit with a 20% rate under these all-inclusive tariffs, which the Commission had dismissed as "neither credible nor justified".
After Trump's change, EU imports to America will be hit with the base rate of 10%. Steel, aluminum and cars will remain subject to a separate tariff of 25%.
Von der Leyen noted that internal work to prepare "further countermeasures" would continue, signaling deep uncertainty about Trump's trade policies. "As I have said before, all options remain on the table," she said.
Earlier on Thursday, von der Leyen doubled down on her proposal for a "zero-for-zero" tariff deal on all industrial goods, which the US president had previously rejected.
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