The United States of America and the European Union, who have been longtime allies, especially after the World Wars has seen a thawing in their cold relationship during the Trump administration. Tariffs had been applied by the former American administration on the E.U. on steel and aluminum and the Union had retaliated by imposing sanctions on American goods. Now, there has been a breakthrough with the European Union saying that it would suspend additional tariffs on American goods in June as the possibility of a new deal is in the horizon.
On Monday, trade representatives from the two mighty Western powers released a joint statement which said that they were searching for “solutions before the end of the year” that would address overcapacity in the steel sector.
In 2018, the then President Donald Trump had put a 25 percent tariff on European steel and 10 percent on aluminum. These tariffs, imposed on grounds of national security, had been a bone of contention between the two superpowers from the past two years.
The European Union tried to negotiate with the Trump administrative but failed to do so. It went to the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the case. Retaliatory tariffs, which reached almost 6.4 billion Euros, which is approximately $7.78 billion, were imposed on U.S. exports. Some of the Americans goods included Bourbon whiskey, orange juice and peanut butter.
On Monday, a spokesman for the European Commission said that their aim was to end the WTO disputes “following the U.S. application of tariffs on imports from the E.U.”
The first batch of tariffs amounted to U.S. exports worth $2.8 billion euros. The remaining 3.6 billion Euros were to be applied on American goods after a period of three years or if a positive deal was reached at the WTO.
After a change of government in the U.S., trade representatives from the Biden administration indicated that they were willing negotiate and the European Union responded in kind by temporarily suspending additional tariffs in favor of a possible deal that could result from talks.
