EU to suspend US tariffs for 90 days

BRUSSELS – The European Union will suspend retaliatory tariffs on the US in response to Donald Trump’s decision yesterday to pause sweeping duties on most US trading partners, Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Thursday.

"While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our Member States, we will put them on hold for 90 days," von der Leyen said, adding: "If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in."

Von der Leyen noted that the European Commission will continue working on its response to the US 25% tariff on automobiles and 10% "universal" levy that still remain in force.

"Preparatory work on further countermeasures continues," she said, adding that "all options remain on the table".

The move follows EU governments’ decision yesterday to greenlight the Commission’s proposed duties of up to 25% on US goods in response to Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs, which came into force last month.

Hours later, the US president announced a 90-day “pause” on sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” announced last week – which hit the EU with a 20% levy.

Two EU diplomats added that this move would create space for negotiations whilst “maintaining pressure” on Washington.

Commission spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters that the EU's "reciprocal pause" will give Brussels time to "analyse" and "reflect" on Trump's decision.

"[We will] talk to our member states, talk to our industry, refine our strategy if we need to," he said, adding that the Commission's "key objective" is "get the Americans to the table to talk and find deals."

Gill also refused to rule out the possibility of the tariffs being permanently withdrawn.

"This thing is changing day by day, hour by hour," he said. "I'm not going to, at this point, speculate about what might or might not happen after the 90 days. I'm more worried about what might happen in 90 minutes. So let's just deal with one thing at a time."

This story has been updated.

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