The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, vowed to respond to President Trump’s latest tax announcement with reprisal tariffs on U.S. imports.
Following President Trump’s executive order imposing a minimum 25% tax on all steel and aluminum entering the United States, von der Leyen said the EU would respond with its own set of countermeasures. The EU chief’s response comes in the wake of multiple trade showdowns President Trump has had with countries like Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and China.
“The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests. Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said in a statement in reaction to President Trump’s tariff announcement, per AP. “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures.”
On Tuesday, the EU was already set to meet, with the union’s trade minister scheduling an emergency meeting to discuss the response.
“It is also important that everyone sticks together. Difficult times require such full solidarity,” said Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The country of Poland holds the current presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, Bernd Lange, said the EU could easily reinstate previous trade measures that Europe enacted during Trump’s first administration.
“When he starts again now, then we will, of course, immediately reinstate our countermeasure,” Lange told German radio station rbb24.
Targets could include “motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, bourbon, whiskey and a whole range of products that of course also affect American exporters,” he said.
Henrik Adam, president of the EUROFER, the trade association of the European iron and steel industry, says Trump’s tariffs could result in the EU losing upwards of 3.7 million tons of steel exports. The United States currently purchases around 16% of all exported steel from the EU, the second-largest of any country.
According to the European Union, the volume of trade between the bloc and the United States amounts to roughly $1.5 trillion, or around 30% of all global trade.
“There is a lot at stake for both sides,” EU Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič said, AP reported.