The European Commission announced officially on Wednesday that is preparing to take countermeasures in case the US confirms the imposition of new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium. The proposed moves have been welcomed by the European steelmakers' association Eurofer, Kallanish notes.

Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom explained in a press conference that the European authorities are still hoping that the announcement made last week by President Trump will not be followed by effective imposition of new tariffs. Nevertheless the Commission is preparing its response in case these are confirmed.

“No decision has been taken so far, but we have raised on numerous occasions our doubts over these measures. We still hope that the EU will be excluded from this and to convince the US administration that this is a wrong move. If a decision is taken, nevertheless, it will hurt the EU and hurt thousands of European jobs,” the commissioner said during the press conference.

According to the commissioner the Commission is ready to challenge the tariffs within the WTO and to protect the European market by putting in place new safeguard measures to avoid an increase of imports of re-directed material. It will also re-balance any losses for the EU by putting some safeguard measures on a wide range of US products sold into the EU.

“The steel sector strongly supports the three-tracked response of the EU of challenging the US measures before the WTO, safeguarding our industry, and rebalancing trade,” Eurofer comments in a statement sent to Kallanish. In particular the association notes that the EU should be quick to implement safeguard measures to avoid an impact on the European market from steel imports that would be re-directed by the US tariffs.