On February 10, 2025, President Trump signed a new Proclamation abolishing as of March 12, 2025 the quota system for the EU and imposing 25% tariffs on all steel products imported into the U.S.. This effectively puts the end to current agreement between the U.S. and the EU which kept the tariffs on steel and alumininum at bay on both sides of the Atlantic for past years.
The EU immediately announced that this U.S. action will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures. EU Trade Ministers are expected to convene on February 12, 2025 to prepare a coordinated response.
So, what are those measures and how can it affect your business?
Existing tariffs, which came to existence in 2018 and were suspended since 2021, are expected to come back to life. The products affected are not only steel and aluminium but a large number of products, such as sweetcorn, kidney beans, rice, peanut butter, bourbon whiskey, tobacco products, cotton products, footwear, motorcycles, and many others. The additional ad valorem duties are of a rate between 10% and 50%. The existing list of products exported from the US and targeted by the EU are set out in Annexes I and II of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/724 of 16 May 2018 (as amended) and in Article 1 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/502 of 6 April 2020. If no new agreement is reached, the existing EU tariffs will automatically resume on March 31, 2025.
However, taking into account the scope of the U.S. tariffs additional EU tariffs on other products can be expected. Stay tuned.
Background of the measures
On March 8, 2018, President Trump signed two Proclamations to impose additional duties of 25% and 10% respectively on certain imports of steel and aluminum products into the United States, including the European Union. Those measures took effect on March 23, 2018. In response to these measures, the EU imposed a rebalancing tariff from 10% to 50% effective as of June 20, 2018.
On October 31, 2021 the EU and the US announced the establishment of a quota-tariff system on imports into the US of EU steel and aluminum products, as a result of which the EU agreed to suspend its tariff increase. That agreement is set to expire on March 31, 2025.
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