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Tariffs: EU postpones measures targeting American products to mid-April

by AI | 20.Mar 2025 | Europe in brief AI

The European Commission announced on Thursday to delay by two weeks, until mid-April, the implementation of its countermeasures targeting American products in response to the 25% tariffs decided by Donald Trump on steel and aluminum.

A man rolls a barrel of bourbon at the Kentucky Peerless Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 11, 2019. (Photo: Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Brussels – “The EU counter-measures announced on March 12 will all take effect in mid-April,” announced the spokesperson for the European executive on trade, Olof Gill, explaining that this would give “more time” for negotiations with the American administration.

On the very day the U.S. tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminum took effect, the EU had announced “strong, but proportionate” tariffs on a series of products imported from the United States like boats, motorcycles, or bourbon starting April 1.

But, according to two European sources interviewed by AFP, Spain, France, and Italy pushed to gain a little more time, fearing Trump’s threat to impose taxes on European wines and other spirits, in response to the tariffs announced by Brussels against bourbon.

According to one of these sources, this product would even be ultimately removed from the list of targeted products from mid-April. Questioned by AFP, the Commission stated that nothing had been decided yet. (March 20, 2025)