Europe’s much-debated retaliatory tariffs against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports have been postponed, the European Commission has announced.
Starting from April 1, Brussels had threatened to slap €26 billion worth of tariffs on US products hailing from Republican voting States, including bourbon whiskey, game consoles, motorcycles, boats and peanut butter.
Yet on March 20, the EC suddenly said it would delay them until mid-April, hoping to avert a trade war.
EC spokesperson Olof Gill claimed the pause would give time for negotiations between the US and EU, offering them room to find common ground.
According to news agency AFP, it was Spain, France and Italy that had pushed for a postponement and urged negotiations, hoping the US would refrain from imposing tariffs on wine and European spirits in response to European tariffs on bourbon.
One source reported claimed that bourbon would be removed from the European tariff list for mid-April altogether.
Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni has said the European Commission was “not wise” to impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods and instead needed to avoid a trade war that would “not benefit the US or Europe”. https://t.co/wjtfEVJyA9
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 19, 2025
The commission has so far stated that nothing had been decided yet.
Europe’s response was designed to be in two stages. On 1 April, the EU would automatically reinstate countermeasures imposed in 2018 and 2020 in reaction to US tariffs from Trump’s first term, following the expiration of their suspension on March 31.
A second round of tariffs was set to take effect on April 13.
In the end, the commission “decided to align the timetable for the two rounds of EU countermeasures”, Gill said.
“By aligning the calendars, the Commission consults the member states on both lists simultaneously. This leaves more time for discussions with the US administration,” he added.
“Our objective is to find a fair balance between products, taking into account the interests of producers, exporters and consumers in the European Union,” the spokesman said.
At the International Trade Committee, Maroš Šefčovič said he preferred co-operation with the US but added that Europe would not shy away from tariffs.
He said the issue in the US was overcapacity on aluminium, not European imports.
He repeated that the postponement of the countermeasures gave member states the opportunity to carefully reconsider what US products the EU wanted to impose additional border tariffs on.
Šefčovič called the situation “fluid” and “volatile” and acknowledged that the US wanted to recalibrate international trade relations.
The EU would only react when a full picture of the US actions would become clearer, he told MEPs on March 20.
In response to the European Union’s counter tariffs against those imposed by US President Donald Trump, Washington has threatened new taxes on European alcohol. https://t.co/u0pFNhnybg
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 13, 2025
