EU to suspend trade tariffs on US goods

The EU and the US have agreed that Washington will continue to suspend tariffs on EU steel and aluminum until March 2025 and Brussels will not reimpose its retaliatory measures, the European Commission said on December 19, Report informs referring to Reuters.

Under the 15-month extension, the United States will refrain from its tariffs of 25% on EU steel and 10% on EU aluminum imposed in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, so parking the dispute until after the US and EU elections.

EU tariffs, imposed in retaliation, covered a range of US goods from Harley Davidson motorcycles to bourbon whiskey and power boats.

Washington replaced its tariffs with quotas from January 2022, initially for two years.

The two sides were supposed to agree on measures to tackle overcapacity before the end of 2023, but negotiations stalled ahead of a US-EU summit in October.

Washington has since offered to extend the tariff suspension to allow more time for talks on creating a system to counter overcapacity and promote less carbon-intensive steel-making.

European steel association Eurofer said it viewed the extension as positive and said it cleared the way for a resumption of negotiations.