The European Union could impose preliminary measures to safeguard its steel and aluminum industries as early as July, although a full investigation will take nine months, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told Reuters on Monday, Reuters reported.
“We can take pre-measures in July already. This is what we are going to discuss. We want to see the preliminary outcomes of the investigation. It is possible,” she said, adding that there was already anecdotal evidence of steel intended for the U.S. market being diverted to Europe by U.S. tariffs.
The EU is also retaliating against the tariffs, which it sees as “safeguards” under the World Trade Organization rules, by imposing its own tariffs on a list of U.S. goods.
“Everything we do is – by the comma – WTO compatible, as opposed to some others,” Malmstrom said.
Trade wars were neither good nor easy to win, as U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to think, and the last few days had shown he had taken “a dangerous road”, she said.
