EU has responded to a plan by President Trump to introduce trade tariffs on steel and aluminium, European, US and Turkish media report. Commissioner Malmström announced yesterday in Brussels a three-level response that was closely coordinated with the Member States: filing a complaint at the WTO, measures to protect the EU steel industry, and punitive tariffs on various US goods, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and other outlets report. Commissioner Malmström said that the EU has drawn up a long list of prized American exports, including peanut butter, orange juice and cranberries, that will be hit with new tariffs if President Trump goes ahead with his plan to tax imports of steel and aluminium, forbes.com reports, adding that she said the EU is targeting about $3 billion worth of US goods.

Commissioner Malmström told reporters that the White House’s justification that the trade tariffs are based on national security considerations is not believable, ETV, CNN, and other media report. We cannot see how this can be relevant, she said. “I have been talking with the US Trade Representative and the Minister for Economic Affairs for months. We have shown them statistics and facts to demonstrate that all of this is not in US interest. We cannot understand how the EU, friends and allies in NATO, can be a threat to the international security of the US,” she said, Handelblatt reports. Commissioner Malmström added that Europe prefers continuing the cooperation with its US friends, but if a trade war takes place, Europe must be prepared, Naftemporiki reports.

However, the EU is still hoping for a last-minute change of heart from President Trump, which is why she emphasised repeatedly that the list is not yet to be considered a formal resolution and that the main goal was not to launch a counter-attack, but to balance out the measures taken by the US, ORF2 reports. According to Commissioner Malmström, the main problem of the steel sector is global overproduction, adding that combating that with protectionism is wrong, ETV reports. Meanwhile, President Tusk has hit back at President Trump by saying: “President Trump has recently said and I quote, ‘trade wars are good and easy to win.’ But the truth is quite the opposite. Trade wars are bad and easy to lose,” reports Večernji list. The Guardian writes that President Trump’s move triggered the resignation of his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs banker who supports free trade. Following Cohn’s decision to become the latest White House aide to quit, President Trump earned a rebuke from Republican House leader Paul Ryan who said he was “extremely worried” about the plan. Nikolaus Piper warns in Süddeutsche Zeitung that the resignation of Mr Cohn could mark a turning point for the liberal world order as with him, the “last adult” has left the White House. His departure is a catastrophe for US allies and the rest of the world as US trade policy is now in the hands of protectionist forces, Mr Piper writes.

At a news conference on Tuesday, President Trump said the EU could be exempted if it removed some of the “horrible barriers” that prevent American products from entering its market, The New York Times reports. “Otherwise, we are going to leave it as it is,” President Trump said, referring to the tariff plan. An editorial in USA Today argues that broad-based tariffs and trade wars are not a good idea as it would threaten the 6.5 million employees in industries, from car manufacturers to can producers, that use steel and aluminium. The planned tariffs could also trigger a trade war between America and its staunchest allies, including Canada and the EU, which have already joined China in vowing to respond. In a commentary in Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Matthias Koch points out that President Juncker has been unusually undiplomatic in his response to President Trump’s plans and that he not only threatened to impose higher tariffs on US imports but added that Europe “can also do stupid.”

On the other hand, President Juncker showed that he is anything but intimidated because he knows that a hypothetical trade war would mainly affect President Trump. Wolfgang Hansson writes in Aftonbladet.se that President Trump is trying to create advantages for the US by means of unfair methods in order to increase his chances of being re-elected in 2020. President Trump’s plan could be interpreted as a negotiation strategy or a confirmation of his total contempt for all international order, which is why the EU’s plans for countermeasures are not only reasonable but essential, Mr Hansson writes, adding that Europe should not bend to the will of the US. The trade war agenda will be tabled at the European Council meeting at the end of March, Naftemporiki and Dagens Industri report