The European Trade Commissioner has announced measures to retaliate against Trump’s levies on steel and aluminium(sic) exports from the EU. These will hit a large number of items including Harley Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, jeans, Florida orange juice and peanut butter. The 25% tariff could come into effect as early as June 21.
The US measures affect EU exports worth €6.4 billion in 2017. While striving to avoid today's situation, the EU has been preparing over the last months and stands now ready to react to the US trade restrictions on steel and aluminium in a swift, firm, proportionate and fully WTO-compatible manner.
The EU will launch legal proceedings against the US in the WTO on 1 June. This was decided by the College of Commissioners on 29 May and Member States were consulted on the same day. The US measures are primarily intended to protect the US domestic industry from import competition, clearly at odds with WTO rules. In addition to the WTO dispute settlement we are launching against the US measures, we have also coordinated action in this field with other affected partners.
As regards the US tariff measures, the EU will use the possibility under WTO rules to rebalance the situation by targeting a list of US products with additional duties. The level of tariffs to be applied will reflect the damage caused by the new US trade restrictions on EU products. The list of US products is ready: it was consulted with European stakeholders and supported by Member States. The EU notified its potential rebalancing to the WTO on 18 May and, in line with the Organisation rules, could trigger them 30 days later. The Commission will now in coordination with Member States take a formal decision to proceed with the rebalancing.
europa.eu/…
China is also being referred to the WTO for its insistence that companies wishing to do business there transfer intellectual property. This is something that Trump has also wittered on about and the EU action appears to be to show that existing WTO rules work and do not, as Trump asserts, need to be renegotiated.
Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said: "Technological innovation and know-how is the bedrock of our knowledge-based economy. It's what keeps our companies competitive in the global market and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across Europe. We cannot let any country force our companies to surrender this hard-earned knowledge at its border. This is against international rules that we have all agreed upon in the WTO. If the main players don't stick to the rulebook, the whole system might collapse."
European companies coming to China are forced to grant ownership or usage rights of their technology to domestic Chinese entities and are deprived of the ability to freely negotiate market-based terms in technology transfer agreements.
Further action will also be taken to avoid steel and aluminium products diverted from the USA being dumped on the EU market, thus endangering these sectors in European countries.
The goods that the EU tarrif effect are targetted to have most effect on Trump-voting states. Those workers and industries will obviously have greater influence on Trump with his desire to seek re-election (ROFL). In addition, there was a Trump supporter on TV last night saying that the effect on the US consumer of the metal tariffs will be minimal — “a cent on the cost of a can”. Nothing for him of course but “Six Pack Sam” may find an effect on his outgoings. Oh and according to this “expert” (cannot remember his name) retaliatory measures will “only” affect US output by 1%. Maybe he conveniently forgot:
Manufacturing production in the United States increased 1.8 percent year-on-year in April of 2018, following a downwardly revised 2.5 percent rise in March
Friday, Jun 1, 2018 · 2:18:53 PM +00:00
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Lib Dem FoP
The very detailed and comprehensive list of items (>10 ways with cranberries!) is available (.pdf). The list is split in 2 with a second list of further tariffs up to 50% if a WTO dispute lingers. The BBC lists those affected by the 25% tariff from later this month.
- Bourbon whiskey, orange juice and cranberries
- Jeans, T-shirts and tobacco
- Corn and other agricultural products
- Steel and industrial products
- Cosmetics, consumer goods, motorbikes and pleasure boats
- Snuff and chewing tobacco
The (again very detailed) list of goods subject to Canadian tariffs are here.