Foreign media reported on September 24 that Maros Sefcovic, the EU trade chief, will meet with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week in an attempt to restart the stalled negotiations on reducing export tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body responsible for trade affairs, has proposed to eliminate or significantly reduce relevant tariffs. But Sefkovic said in an interview that the US side has not yet responded to the proposal.
Sefkovich said, "The most reasonable measure would be to implement a tariff quota system and impose low or zero tariffs on products within the quota." It is too early to elaborate further at present as we have not yet received a response from the US side to this proposal. However, we are well aware that this is crucial to the EU industry, so we will continue to take it as a negotiation topic.
Sevkovic and Greer will meet during the ASEAN Ministerial Summit in Kuala Lumpur, and the European Commission plans to raise this issue during this meeting.
When asked for relevant comments, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said that the Department of Commerce is responsible for handling metal tariffs. The US Department of Commerce has not yet responded to requests for comment.
The EU's proposal this time is a follow-up to the trade political agreement reached with the United States in July this year. Under this agreement, the United States imposes a 15% tariff on most EU products, while the EU has committed to eliminating tariffs on US industrial products. The EU side said that both sides also committed to working towards reducing the 50% tariffs imposed on EU steel and aluminum products.
The EU's plan is to set quotas for steel and aluminum trade, and all EU export products within the quotas can enjoy tax reduction or exemption treatment. However, in August this year, the United States imposed a 50% tariff on over 400 new products containing steel and aluminium, further complicating the situation.
Sefkovic said that the European Commission is formulating specific solutions to the issue and has immediately submitted relevant proposals to the Trump administration, but he added that no "specific response" has been received from the US side so far.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last week that a solution to high tariffs on steel and aluminium "has made significant progress", but provided no more details.
Several EU countries, including Germany, have criticized the trade agreement reached between the EU and the United States. The European Commission, however, argued that the agreement is the best option under the current conditions, providing predictability for European enterprises while maintaining transatlantic cooperation on issues such as security and defense, especially the Ukraine issue.
However, the United States has yet to fulfill some key commitments in the agreement, especially by not reducing tariffs on EU vehicles from 27.5% to 15%.
Since US President Donald Trump imposed high tariffs on steel and aluminum products during his first term, the differences between the EU and the US in this field have persisted. Even after Trump left office, the two sides failed to completely resolve this dispute during the Biden administration. When Trump returned to the White House, he abolished all tariff exemptions and raised the tax rate to 50%.
