The US and the EU have agreed to ease tariffs on billions of dollars of steel and aluminium products in a bid to resolve a trade dispute that has hung over transatlantic relations since the Trump administration.
“We have agreed with the US to pause our steel and aluminium [section 232] trade dispute and launch co-operation on a Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium,” said Valdis Dombrovskis, EU trade commissioner. He said Joe Biden, US president, and Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commission president, would give more details on Sunday.
The Biden administration and the EU have been negotiating a settlement on steel and aluminium trade for months. Former president Donald Trump imposed tariffs on metals products under little-used national security legislation in 2018.