EU targets €26 billion of U.S. products from red states in tariff pushback

The European Union launched countermeasures on Wednesday against new U.S. metals tariffs, with plans to impose its own duties on up to €26 billion (US$28.3 billion) worth of American goods.

The announcement came hours after the U.S. administration imposed 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in a massive escalation of the trade war between the longstanding allies. The EU will target politically sensitive goods in Republican-led states, including soybeans from Louisiana, home to House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to a senior EU official.

EU metals tariffs that had been put in place during Trump’s first term, and later suspended, are due to be reintroduced in full on April 1, including some levies that have never previously been in force.

The EU will also immediately begin consultations with member states, with the aim of adopting the additional lists of agricultural and industrial goods subject to tariffs as high as 25 per cent by mid-April. Officials said the idea is to allow a window for negotiations, which will be led by the bloc’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic.

“The countermeasures we take today are strong yet proportionate,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at a briefing in Strasbourg. “We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geo-economic and political uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with such tariffs.”

While the EU announced immediately retaliatory steps, other affected countries, including the U.K., refrained from immediate action and called for negotiations.

European stocks rallied on Wednesday, with the Stoxx Europe 600 gaining 0.7 per cent and Germany’s DAX rallying 1.2 per cent as traders reacted to progress toward a