By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission proposed on Thursday countermeasures on up to 95 billion euros ($107.2 billion) of U.S. imports if negotiations with Washington fail to remove the series of tariffs applied by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The new measures, representing the EU’s response to U.S. import tariffs on cars and its broader ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, would target U.S. wine, fish, aircraft, car and car parts, chemicals, electrical equipment, health products and machinery.
The European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the 27-nation EU, said it was launching a month-long consultation for EU members and business to react. It will then take a final decision on its counter-tariffs, likely to hit a smaller volume of U.S. imports.
The announcement of a new list of products the EU may target comes on the day Trump is expected to announce a trade deal between the United States and Britain.
The EU currently faces 25% U.S. import tariffs on its steel, aluminium and cars and so-called “reciprocal” tariffs of 10% for almost all other goods, a levy that could rise to 20% after Trump’s 90-day pause expires on July 8.
The Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the 27 EU members, has repeatedly said it would prefer a negotiated solution to tit-for-tat tariffs, but wants to have a retaliatory response ready for July in case no solution is found.
The bloc in April approved duties mostly of 25% on U.S. imports amounting to 21 billion euros, including maize, wheat, motorcycles and clothing. These, a response to U.S. metals tariffs, were suspended before entering force, after Trump announced his 90-day pause.
The Commission has said U.S. tariffs in place now covered 380 billion euros or 70% of EU goods trade to the U.S. and that could rise to 97% after further U.S. investigations into pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, critical minerals and trucks.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that discussions between the United States and Europe were ongoing and that Washington was pressing the EU to lower its tariffs and regulatory barriers to improve the trading relationship.
($1 = 0.8859 euros)
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)
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