EU fights back against American tariffs with €26bn 'countermeasures'

The EU has announced it will impose trade “countermeasures” on US goods worth up to €26bn (£22bn) in retaliation to Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, escalating a global trade war.

- Jennifer Rankin, Joanna Partridge

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the 25% US levies on global imports of the metals “unjustified trade restrictions”, after they came into force at 4am GMT yesterday.

“We deeply regret this measure,” von der Leyen said in a statement, announcing that “strong but proportionate” countermeasures would come into force from 1 April. “Tariffs are taxes, they are bad for business and worse for consumers. They are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy .”

While the UK did not announce retaliatory measures, Keir Starmer did not rule them out in future. The prime minister told MPs yesterday he was “disappointed” by the tariffs but would “take a pragmatic approach”.

He said Britain was “negotiating an economic deal which covers and will include tariffs if we succeed. But we will keep all options on the table .”

Starmer had announced on Tuesday that Britain would not respond with its own counter-tariffs , after last-ditch efforts to persuade Trump to spare British industry from his global tariffs failed.