The latest US measures come after Trump announced a 25% import tariff on steel and aluminum as well as on cars and some auto parts. The EU announced a set of countermeasures of up to €26 billion ($28.1 billion) in response to the metals duties, which are expected to enter into force in mid-April. Trump has said he’ll announce other sectoral duties on products including lumber, pharmaceutical goods and semiconductors.
“The EU is the largest single market in the world,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Berlin Thursday. “We therefore have every opportunity to react in a united and decisive manner and to show that we have our own instruments for action — and they will be used.”
Bloomberg reported earlier that France and other countries have called on the commission to consider deploying the bloc’s anti-coercion instrument — the EU’s most powerful trade tool, designed to strike back against nations that use trade and economic measures coercively.
The so-called ACI has never been deployed before and could lead to restrictions on trade and services as well as certain intellectual property rights, foreign direct investment and access to public procurement.
Concern is mounting in the EU since US counterparts haven’t shown interest in a negotiated solution, according to another official. The anti-coercion instrument is on the table of options, but is considered a tool of last resort, given the likely outsize impact it would cause.