U.S., EU hit deal to ease tariffs on steel, aluminum

ROME — The Biden administration has struck a deal with European Union officials to lift some tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, resolving at this year’s Group of 20 summit a bitter trade standoff that began under President Donald Trump three years ago.

The deal announced Saturday allows “limited volumes” of steel and aluminum products from the EU to enter the United States tariff-free, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

In return, the EU will drop its retaliatory tariffs on American goods. The EU had been poised on Dec. 1 to boost tariffs to 50% on various U.S. products, including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon from Kentucky.

“This agreement is significant in that it will reduce costs for American manufacturers and consumers,” Raimondo said.

Biden administration officials have faced a difficult task in deciding how or whether to unwind Trump’s duties on imports, which were panned by many economists as raising prices for American consumers but in many cases were cheered by labor organizations for shielding industry groups from foreign competition.

Administration officials said they expect the tariff agreement to help alleviate the current supply chain issues that are currently hampering manufacturing and distribution of key goods throughout the United States. It also will help ensure that all steel entering the United States from Europe will be made entirely on the continent, according to the administration.

It also calls on future negotiations to take “carbon intensity” levels in steel and aluminum into account in future trade talks, which Raimondo said would allow production of products that are “significantly cleaner” than steel and aluminum produced in China.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the tariff agreement removes “one of the largest bilateral irritants in the U.S.-EU relationship.”

Some experts said the measure is coming dispiritingly late given how long Joe Biden has president and the high prices on many goods roiling the U.S. economy.

“I’m surprised it took this long. Trump put that on, it seemed, in a pique of anger with no obvious logic and it seemed easy to do to take it off. We’re eight, nine, months into his term of office,” said Dean Baker, a liberal economist. “It raises the prices at a time we’re having these supply chain problems.”

But the administration has been reluctant to antagonize the steel industry and other domestic producers protected by the tariffs.

In the electorally crucial state of Pennsylvania, for instance, the administration faces strong political pressure to maintain the tariffs on behalf of state steelworkers. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that the tariffs created more than 3,000 steelmaking jobs.

Raimondo said this month the tariffs “helped save American jobs in the steel and aluminum industries.”

The American Iron and Steel institute praised Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai for maintaining enough of the tariff to “prevent another steel import surge that would undermine our industry and destroy good paying American jobs.”

The United States Steelworkers also released a statement on Saturday praising the agreement.

“We appreciate the Biden administration’s continued recognition that the American steel industry is critical to our national and economic security,” said Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute in a statement.