BRUSSELS — The European Union will suspend for 90 days its counter measures against the U.S. in response to President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, to buy time to negotiate a trade deal, Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday.
The EU chief executive announced the concession after Trump pulled a U-turn on Wednesday on the punishing “reciprocal” tariffs he announced on “Liberation Day” just over a week ago.
“We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said in a social media post. “While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our Member States, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”
The idea was discussed by EU ambassadors in an emergency meeting on Thursday morning, the day after member countries gave their overwhelming assent to counter measures on €21 billion in U.S. exports — ranging from agricultural and industrial commodities to cigarettes, ice cream and even yachts.
The idea would be to start applying the tariffs from April 15, as initially planned, but to suspend collecting the duties to create room for negotiations with the White House, according to four diplomats who were granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.
Von der Leyen added: “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in. Preparatory work on further countermeasures continues. As I have said before, all options remain on the table.”
In a stunning move, Trump on Wednesday halved the 20 percent tariff he announced on the EU on April 2, bringing it into line with a 10 percent universal tariff he has set for most countries. At the same time, he jacked up tariffs on China to 125 percent in an escalating tit-for-tat trade battle between the world’s two largest economies.
His retreat relieved massive pressure on financial markets, triggering a double-digit rally in stocks and easing strains on the market for U.S. Treasury bonds that had threatened the stability of the global financial system. Still, U.S. tariffs remain higher than they have been in a century.
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