On September 13, 2021, steel ingots came out of the oven at the Saarsthal railway plant in Hayange, France. The United States and the European Union have reached an agreement on tariffs on steel and aluminum. Jean-Christophe Wilhagen/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
On September 13, 2021, steel ingots came out of the oven at the Saarsthal railway plant in Hayange, France. The United States and the European Union have reached an agreement on tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Rome-The Biden administration announced the outline of an agreement to end the economic deadlock that has caused growing tension between the United States and the European Union.
The United States will continue to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum on European countries, but will allow a certain amount of EU-produced steel and aluminum to enter the US market without tariffs.
The Biden administration official who briefed reporters on the breakthrough on Saturday did not specify how much material the agreement allows.
Government officials said that in return and in retaliation, the EU will abolish retail tariffs imposed on well-known US industries. These interest rates were originally scheduled to increase in December.
These tariffs apply to all countries except Canada and Mexico, and were first introduced during the Trump administration in 2018-25% for steel and 10% for aluminum.
"A strong steel and aluminum industry is vital to our national security and absolutely vital," Trump said at the time. "Steel is steel. Without steel, there would be no country."
The international outcry against tariffs has been rapid, and the global market has fallen sharply. Soon after, the EU retaliated with its own tariffs.
Now, the policy changes announced during the G20 Rome Economic Summit appear to be a balance between maintaining nominal protection of American producers and addressing the increased costs caused by tariffs. The rise in inflation was longer than Biden officials initially expected.
Scott Detrow reports from Rome; Deepa Shivaram is in Washington, DC