Civic Register
| 3.7.18

EU Threatens Retaliation to Steel Tariffs

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What’s the story?

  • The European Union has pledged to retaliate against the Trump administration’s planned tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

  • EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Brussels has three possible retaliatory measures: imposing tariffs on imported U.S. products, launching proceedings at the World Trade Organization, and adding safeguards to protect the EU against steel diverted from the U.S.

  • The EU, Canada, and South Korea are major exporters of steel to the U.S.

What American items would be targeted?

A provisional list includes:

  • Kentucky bourbon (made in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell)

  • Orange juice

  • Peanut butter

  • T-shirts

  • Blue jeans

  • Bed linen

  • Cranberries

  • Chewing tobacco

  • Harley Davidson (whose corporate headquarters are in Wisconsin, home state of House Speaker Paul Ryan)

What’s the EU saying?

  • Malmstrom rejected President Donald Trump’s claims that the tariffs are necessary to protect U.S. national security:

"We have serious doubt about that justification. We cannot see how the European Union, friends, and allies in Nato, can be a threat to national security in the U.S. We find that assumption deeply unjust."

  • Malmstrom said the EU is "discussing different U.S. products on which different import tariffs can be imposed."

  • European Council President Donald Tusk told a press conference in Luxembourg: "President Trump has recently said, and I quote, 'trade wars are good and easy to win' but the truth is quite the opposite. Trade wars are bad and easy to lose."

  • Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, president of the German Steel Federation, said last Friday: "These measure clearly violate the rules of the World Trade Organization. If the E.U. does not react, our steel industry will pay the bill for U.S. protectionism."

  • Simon Clarke, a Conservative member of Britain’s Parliament and vice chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel and Metal Related Industries, tweeted:

What do you think?

Do you agree with Trump that "trade wars good and easy to win"? Or is the EU correct that they’re "bad and easy to lose"? Do you support the tariffs? Or do you side with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) that they’re “a tax hike the American people don't need and can't afford”? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

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(Photo Credit: bizoo_n / iStock)