EU moves ahead with counterstrike to American tariffs

By Quentin Ariès, James McAuley ·(c) 2018, The Washington Post · Jun 01, 2018 -  BRUSSELS - The European Union moved ahead Friday with a slew of retaliatory countermeasures in response to the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum import tariffs.  

A day after the United States announced the tariffs would not exempt the E.U., Canada or Mexico, the Brussels-based bloc announced that it would file a complaint with the World Trade Organization. And before the end of June, the E.U. will also impose tariffs targeting certain American imports.  

Cecilia Malmstrom, the E.U.’s trade chief, lamented the failure of last-minute negotiations with her American counterparts but insisted that Europe’s response would be firm. “We have been very clear about the consequences,” she said.  

After President Donald Trump first announced the tariffs in March, the E.U. threatened retaliatory actions. In mid-May, the bloc published a 10-page list of American products facing potential E.U. tariffs, many of them with symbolic meaning, including bourbon, a mainstay of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, and cranberries, which are grown in House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s native Wisconsin.  

Malmstrom said that specific retaliatory measures would be submitted to the World Trade Organization by June 20.  

“The European Union measures will be reasonable, proportionate and in full compliance with WTO rules and obligations,” Frederic Mogherini, the E.U.’s foreign policy chief, told reporters Friday morning.