Details
- Status
- Open
- Opening date
- Deadline
- Department
- Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security
- Country or region
- United States
- Trade topics
- Enforcement and protection
- Trade policy
Target audience
Anyone who is affected by the United States’ measures and by the possible EU measures in response is invited to submit their views and to make their views known.
You may submit your input by replying to the questionnaire in EU Survey in any of the official languages of the EU. You may request that your submission is treated confidentially.
Why we are consulting
Context
On 10 February 2025, the United States of America ('United States') announced tariffs with effect from 12 March 2025 and with unlimited duration, as follows:
- An increase of the rate from 10% to 25% ad valorem duty applicable to imports of certain aluminium products and certain aluminum derivatives, including those originating in the EU.
- The United States announced the imposition of a 25% duty on imports of steel and aluminium on all products covered by the Section 232 measures imposed in 2018 and 2020 respectively. In the original 2020 and 2018 US measures, steel products and their derivatives were already subject to a 25% ad valorem duty, whereas aluminium and aluminium derivatives were subject to a 10% ad valorem duty. The United States is now effectively increasing the additional customs duties from 10% to 25% ad valorem duty.
- 25% ad valorem duty to new steel and aluminium derivative products as listed in Annex I to the Presidential proclamations 10895 and 10896 of 10 February 2025. [1]
The measures described above are hereinafter referred as the United States’ measures.
Regulation (EU) No 654/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 (the Enforcement Regulation) [2] provides the legal basis for the EU to suspend concessions or other obligations under international trade agreements, with the intention of rebalancing concessions or other obligations in trade relations with third countries, when the treatment accorded to goods from the EU is altered in a way that affects the EU's interests.
The Enforcement Regulation applies, in particular, for the rebalancing of concessions or other obligations, which is foreseen in Article 8 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards.
Where action is necessary to safeguard the EU's interests in such cases, the EU may take appropriate commercial policy measures in response, on the basis of objective criteria. As envisaged in Article 5 of the Enforcement Regulation, the commercial policy measures may consist of, inter alia, the suspension of tariff concessions and the imposition of new or increased customs duties.
These commercial policy measures must be substantially equivalent to the level of concessions or other obligations affected by the third country's measure and must be determined on the basis of the following criteria, where relevant, in light of available information and of the EU's general interest:
- effectiveness in inducing compliance of third countries with international trade rules;
- potential to provide relief to economic operators within the EU, affected by third country measures;
- availability of alternative sources of supply for the goods concerned, in order to avoid or minimise any negative impact on downstream industries, contracting authorities or entities, or final consumers within the EU;
- avoidance of disproportionate administrative complexity and costs in the application of the measures, and;
- any specific criteria that may be established in international trade agreements.
[1] Presidential Proclamation 10896 of February 10, 2025 Adjusting Imports of Steel Into the United States; Proclamation 10895 of February 10, 2025 Adjusting Imports of Aluminum Into the United States
[2] Regulation (EU) No 654/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 concerning the exercise of the Union's rights for the application and enforcement of international trade rules and amending Council Regulation (EC) No 3286/94 laying down Community procedures in the field of the common commercial policy in order to ensure the exercise of the Community's rights under international trade rules, in particular those established under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (OJ L 189, 27.6.2014, p. 50), amended by Regulation (EU) 2021/167 of the European Parliament and the Council of 10 February 2021 (OJ L 49, 12.2.2021, p. 1).
Respond to the consultation
You may submit your input by replying to the questionnaire by 26 March 2025, 12:00 (UTC+01:00), Brussels time, in any of the official languages of the EU.
You may request that your submission is treated confidentially.
Should your submission require confidential treatment, you can submit the filled-out form by 26 March 2025, 12:00 (UTC+01:00), Brussels time, citing a good cause for such confidential treatment and a non-confidential summary, to the following e-mail address:
TRADE ENFORCEMENT REGULATION CONSULTATIONS at trade-enforcement-reg@ec.europa.eu
Additional information
Possible Commercial Policy Measures
The Commission is currently assessing the appropriate parameters of possible commercial policy measures for the purposes of rebalancing the United States’ measures and thus to safeguard the EU’s interests in line with the Enforcement Regulation.
The Commission is considering the following commercial policy measures, as envisaged in Article 5 of the Enforcement Regulation: suspension of tariff concessions under Article 8 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards and imposition of increased customs duties on certain products from the United States.
The Commission services have identified products originating in the United States that could potentially be subject to a possible suspension of concessions and additional import duties. These products, or a subset of them, may be affected in line with the requirements of the Enforcement Regulation described above. The full list is available of products is available for download.
List of the US products which could be subject to possible commercial policy measures
Use of information and confidentiality
To receive full consideration, written comments submitted as part of this information gathering should be as detailed as possible and include supporting documents. You may upload supporting documents at the end of the questionnaire.
In line with the Enforcement Regulation, information received pursuant to this notice will be used only for the purpose for which it was requested.
Neither the European Parliament, nor the Council, nor the Commission, nor Member States, nor their respective officials shall reveal any information of a confidential nature received pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 654/2014, without specific permission from the supplier of such information.
The supplier of information may request that information supplied be treated as confidential. In such cases, it must be accompanied by a non-confidential summary which presents the information in a generalised form or a statement of the reasons why the information cannot be summarised. If it appears that a request for confidentiality is not justified and if the supplier is unwilling either to make the information public or to authorise its disclosure in generalised or summary form, the information in question may be disregarded. The confidential treatment will not preclude the disclosure of general information by the institutions of the EU and the authorities of the Member States. Such disclosure must take into account the legitimate interest of the parties concerned in not having their business secrets divulged.
Information received pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 654/2014 may be subject to a request for access to documents under EU Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents[1]. In such cases, the request will be assessed on the basis of the conditions set out in Regulation 1049/2001 and in accordance with applicable data protection rules.
For more information or should you encounter any problems in filling out the form, please contact:
TRADE ENFORCEMENT REGULATION CONSULTATIONS at trade-enforcement-reg@ec.europa.eu
[1] Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents OJ L 145, 31/05/2001, p. 43–48.
