The European Commission announced countermeasures to address the impact on EU businesses and consumers in response to the US reinstating 25% tariffs on steel imports and increase of the existing 10% tariff on aluminum imports to 25%, while extending these tariffs to additional steel and aluminum products on March 12, 2025. These countermeasures will be implemented in two stages, starting with renewing the countermeasures imposed in 2018 and 2020 (previously suspended). These measures, which include tariffs ranging from 4.4% to 50% on certain US products, will come into force on April 1, 2025. To determine whether their supply chains will be affected, companies should review the list of US products subject to the 2018 countermeasures in Regulation (EU) 2018/886, and the list of US products subject to the 2020 countermeasures in Regulation (EU) 2020/502.
For the second stage, the European Commission will propose a new package of countermeasures on US products, which the commission reportedly will implement on or about April 13, 2025. Companies should review the list of US products potentially subject to these new countermeasures (available here) and participate in the Commission’s consultation process, which is open until March 26, 2025 (information on that process is available here). This process allows potentially affected parties to provide input, which will be considered before the new package is adopted.
In parallel, the European Commission remains open to a negotiated solution with the US. European Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, emphasized the Commission’s willingness to engage constructively to reach an agreement that could lead to the suspension of the US tariffs and the EU countermeasures. However, companies should prepare for the upcoming changes by verifying the classification and origin of their products according to EU regulations and participate in the consultation process described above.
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