WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Washington will announce plans to slap tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports as early as Thursday morning, sources said, while the U.S. commerce secretary said any escalation of their trade dispute would depend on the bloc’s reaction.
The two sources briefed on the matter said the decision would land before a Friday expiration deadline for exemptions to the planned tariffs.
They said the announcement was planned for Thursday morning in Washington but that the timing could still change. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told French daily Le Figaro it would be announced either before markets opened or after they closed.
While not confirming directly that the U.S. would decide to impose tariffs, he said: “It’s up to the European Union to decide if it wants to take retaliatory measures. The next question would be: how will the (U.S.) President (Donald Trump) react? You saw his reaction when China decided to retaliate.
“If there is an escalation it will be because the EU would have decided to retaliate,” he said, adding that Washington did not want a trade war with the EU.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, whom Ross was scheduled to meet in Paris on Thursday morning, said on Wednesday that the EU did not want a trade war either but would respond if Washington imposed tariffs.
In March, Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum, but granted temporary exemptions to the EU, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Argentina.
Trump invoked a 1962 trade law to erect protections for U.S.
