BRUSSELS – The European Commission on July 14 said it was putting forward a new list of US goods worth €72 billion (S$108 billion) that could be targeted by European Union levies if tariff talks with Washington fail.
The bloc’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic announced the proposal, “accounting for some €72 billion worth of US imports”, at a meeting with EU ministers in Brussels.
The move came after US President Donald Trump threw months of painstaking negotiations with the EU into disarray by threatening to impose tariffs of 30 per cent on the bloc’s goods if there is no deal by Aug 1.
EU trade ministers agreed they were still keen to secure an agreement with Washington before that deadline to head off the damaging duties.
But at the same time, Brussels is moving to ready potential retaliation if Mr Trump presses ahead with the sweeping tariffs.
“There was a total-unified position among the ministers that we should be ready to respond if needed,” said Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
The EU has already prepared a separate list of US imports worth €21 billion that it is ready to target over earlier tariffs from Mr Trump on steel and aluminium.
The bloc announced on July 13 that it would further hold off from putting that list into force as it searches for a deal with the US by August. AFP
