In our news of 12 February 2025, we already pointed out that the United States under President Trump would impose additional tariffs on numerous steel and aluminium products. The list of products affected announced at the time has since been published and can be found in the Annex to Proclamation 10896 of 10 February 2025:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/18/2025-02833/adjusting-imports-of-steel-into-the-united-states .
The introduction of these tariffs marks a continuation of the trade conflict with the United States that began in 2018. Although it had meanwhile been possible to ease the reciprocal measures, this development now threatens to reverse that trend, and further trade policy restrictions are to be expected.
In a statement, Dr Henrik Adam, President of the Wirtschaftsverband der europäischen Eisen- und Stahlindustrie, emphasised the need for a decisive response by the European Union. He calls for a comprehensive tariff system to be maintained in order to protect the competitiveness of European industry. The full statement can be found here: https://www.eurofer.eu/pressreleases/statement-on-u-s-steel-tariffs-by-eurofer-president-dr-henrik-adam)
The European Commission has also published a Q&A document on reciprocal tariff policy, which is available at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/qanda_25_541/QANDA_25_541_EN.pdf
In particular, it explains that value added tax is also levied on goods manufactured in the EU and is not to be understood as a discriminatory measure against foreign products. Value added tax therefore differs fundamentally from an import tariff.
