European Union to retaliate US metal tariffs within 'hours'

The European Union will announce within hours steps to retaliate against harsh US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker announced Thursday, saying it was "bad day" for trade.

The 28-nation bloc "will announce in the next coming hours counter-balancing measures," Juncker told a conference in Brussels after Washington said new tariffs would be effective from 0400 GMT Friday.

"This is a bad day for the world trade," Juncker said. "The European Union cannot react to that without any kind of reaction."

He said that the EU would also launch a dispute settlement procedure against the United States at the World Trade Organization, a legal process that could take years.

Juncker's trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said the EU had tried "everything to avoid this outcome" in talks with President Donald Trump's administration over the last two months.

"I have argued for the EU and the US to engage in a positive transatlantic trade agenda, and for the EU to be fully, permanently and unconditionally exempted from these tariffs," the Swedish commissioner said.

"This is also what EU leaders have asked for," she added.

Malmstroem said the US side tried to use the threat of sanctions as "leverage to obtain concessions" from the EU but added "this is not the way we do business," especially between longstanding allies.

"Now that we have clarity, the EU's response will be proportionate and in accordance with WTO rules," she added.

In Washington, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the Trump administration was following through on its threat to impose metal tariffs on not just the EU, but also Canada and Mexico.

Ross said talks with the EU had failed to reach a satisfactory agreement to convince Washington to continue the exemption from the tariffs imposed in March.

The US has also begun a process that targets car imports, in a move that could poison relations even further with Europe.