French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says Brussels will retaliate against new 25% levies on all steel and aluminum purchases
The EU will take reciprocal measures if US President Donald Trump carries out his threat to impose tariff hikes on metal imports, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said.
The comment comes after Trump said he would impose 25% levies on all steel and aluminum brought into the US. The president specified that the fresh tariffs would apply on top of US existing metals duties.
“There is no hesitation when it comes to defending our interests,” Barrot said on Monday in an interview with TF1, claiming that Trump’s announcement on Sunday didn’t come as a surprise.
“It is exactly what Donald Trump did in 2018, and at the time, we responded,” the diplomat added, referring to tariffs introduced by the US president during his first term. “So this time, we will respond again in the same way.”
Barrot reiterated the “quite impressive list” of US items imported by the EU that were previously hit by Brussels’ retaliation measures. He added that “at the time, it included motorcycles like Harleys, jeans, tobacco, corn, rice, orange juice, and bourbon.”
The European Commission has insisted that it will “determine the sectors that will be targeted by the countermeasures, when the time comes,” the minister said, emphasizing that “the time has come.”
Washington and Brussels have been involved in a major trade spat since 2018, when Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on European steel imports and 10% on aluminum, citing threats to US national security from EU competition. Back then, the EU authorities enacted retaliatory measures, placing import duties on motorcycles produced by Harley-Davidson Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co jeans. Trump escalated tensions by threatening tariffs on EU car exports, although they were never implemented.
As part of his latest tariff spree, the US president introduced 25% levies on all imports from Mexico and Canada and 10% on imports from China, citing concerns over illegal immigration and drug trafficking. However, the levies have been postponed for 30 days after negotiations with Mexican and Canadian leaders as they pledged to work on enhancing border protections. Last week, Trump also halted a key element of tariffs imposed on China, temporarily retaining the longstanding duty-free status of small-value packages, after his tariff move sparked chaos with deliveries.
