By Philip Blenkinsop and Julia Payne
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union should focus on negotiating with Washington to avert a transatlantic trade war while being ready with countermeasures, Germany’s economy ministry said on Wednesday, ahead of a video conference of EU ministers.
Ministers responsible for trade from the EU’s 27 members will meet online from 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) to discuss the EU response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports from March 12.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called those tariffs unjustified and said they would “trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures”.
One EU diplomat said it was time to be “cool-headed,” with a month still to go before the tariffs take effect.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck will represent Germany in the video conference and is set to emphasise the need to prevent a trade dispute and for the European Union to show a united front.
“It remains important for the European Commission to hold talks with the U.S. administration in order to reach a solution regarding the tariffs,” Habeck’s ministry said.
“At the same time, it must make it clear – and the Commission has already announced this – that it has prepared countermeasures,” it continued.
The Commission has not given detail of its measures. One option would be to reactivate the tariffs the EU imposed in 2018 on products such as bourbon, motorcycles and orange juice. These were suspended under a truce agreed between von der Leyen and former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The European Union is not the United States’ largest supplier of steel and aluminium, but exports are still substantial.
The United States is the second-largest export market for EU steel, with annual shipments worth an average of about 3 billion euros ($3.10 billion) over the past decade. EU aluminium exports were worth 2.4 billion euros in the first 11 months of 2024.
Lobby group European Aluminium urged the European Commission to engage in immediate talks with U.S. counterparts to seek a resolution.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Julia Payne and Rachel More in Berlin; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
