Steel products are seen in a warehouse at North York Iron, a steel supplier in Toronto, on Feb. 11, 2025. (Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images)
BRUSSELS — The European Union hit back Wednesday at President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, unveiling a two-stage retaliation that would cover billions of dollars’ worth of products.
The U.S. decision to raise tariffs on steel and aluminum to 25 percent for global imports took effect Wednesday, the latest salvo in Trump’s ongoing campaign to reshape the U.S. trading relationship with the rest of the world.
The E.U. executive branch, the European Commission, said its response would cover roughly $28 billion in U.S. exports. Starting April 1, the bloc will reimpose tariffs dating to Trump’s first term, including on products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon. It will then place extra measures on more than $19 billion in products in mid-April after consulting with E.U. member states.
“We deeply regret this measure,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement Wednesday. “Jobs are at stake, prices up, nobody needs that.”
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European leaders have warned for month they would swiftly hit back against potential tariffs, even as they emphasized that a trade war would hurt both sides and tried to negotiate an off-ramp with the Trump administration.
The E.U. said Wednesday that its response will come in two stages. During Trump’s first term, the bloc had raised tariffs on a variety of products in response to U.S. measures, which were later suspended after negotiations during the Biden administration. The pause on tariffs will now be allowed to expire on April 1, reimposing the higher E.U. levies on products including jeans and boats.
During Trump’s first term, the E.U. chose tariffs designed for maximum political impact, targeting industries based in the home states of Republican leaders, including bourbon from Kentucky, the state represented by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. E.U. diplomats have indicated there would be a similar approach going forward.
In retaliation for new U.S. tariffs that will affect products such as cookware that contain steel and aluminum, the E.U. said it would impose tariffs on more than $19 billion worth of extra products, in a tit-for-tat move that could further inflame the trade war.
Officials from the European Union’s 27 member states will consult for two weeks to finalize the list of products, with the aim of imposing the new levies by mid-April.
The tariffs come at a difficult time for economies in the E.U., which counts the United States as its largest export market. With key countries facing sluggish growth, businesses are bracing for the prospect of a protracted trade war. Germany, the leading exporter to the United States, would be particularly vulnerable.
The bloc had been bracing for U.S. tariffs. At E.U. headquarters, a group informally dubbed the “Trump task force” has since last year been strategizing for his return and focused on preparing for trade scenarios.
European leaders have made clear they would much prefer to negotiate and persuade Trump to forgo steep tariffs. On Wednesday, officials suggested they hoped negotiations would continue and that the new E.U. measures could spur some agreement.
But E.U. officials have faced difficulties arranging meetings with some of their U.S. counterparts or determining whom to lobby in the administration, given their uncertainty about how U.S. decisions are made, European diplomats said.
The Trump administration has not engaged with E.U. offers to negotiate a deal, the commission’s top trade official said earlier this week. E.U. Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who visited Washington last month, said the two sides found issues they could work on but that the U.S. administration “does not seem to be engaging to make a deal.”
“We jointly identified the few areas that would allow us to move forward by fostering a mutual benefit,” he told reporters in Brussels. “But in the end, one hand cannot clap.”
Beatriz Rios contributed to this report.