European Commission spokesperson Gill stated on the 24th that the Commission’s proposed countermeasure list for US goods has been overwhelmingly approved by member states and will be published in the official gazette on the 25th.
He said the EU has merged the previous two draft lists into one concise and coherent list. If EU-US trade negotiations fail before August 7th, these countermeasures will automatically come into effect.
Facing the US’s increasingly tough negotiating stance, EU member states, including Germany, have also adopted a tougher approach toward the US.
Germany has stated that if an agreement cannot be reached between the EU and the US, it supports the EU in using anti-coercion tools to implement countermeasures.
The countermeasure list includes a 25% tariff on US goods worth 21 billion euros already approved in April this year, as well as a new 72 billion euro countermeasure list proposed by the Commission this month, covering dozens of products including US aircraft, automobiles, and whiskey. These goods will face the same 30% tariff rate as threatened by the US.
Although previous media reports suggested that the EU and the US were close to reaching an agreement where US tariffs on EU exports would be set at 15%, similar to the previous US-Japan trade agreement framework, with Trump confirming the final version, the White House spokesperson pointed out that discussions about a trade agreement are still "speculation."