The European Union responded to President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause of U.S. reciprocal tariffs by announcing its own pause on pending retaliatory tariffs on Thursday.
EU member states on Wednesday approved a package of retaliatory measures in response to new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. The retaliatory duties were set to apply new duties of up to 25% on around $23 billion in U.S. exports between now and December, according to Germany’s Deutsche Welle.
Soybeans, poultry, nuts and other U.S. food products are among the products targeted, according to reporting in Europe. The full list was expected to be made public next week.
Announcing the pause, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted to give space for ongoing negotiations to continue.
“We want to give negotiations a chance,” she said in a post to X on Thursday. But Von der Leyen warned that is negotiations “are not satisfactory” that the EU countermeasures will be applied.
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The initial EU countermeasures only applied to the U.S.’ steel and aluminum tariff hike. The bloc had not yet assembled its response to the 20% reciprocal tariff that went into effect on Wednesday and was paused hours later.
But Von der Leyen said work on those countermeasures would continue.
“As I have said before, all options remain on the table,” she wrote on X.
Not all member states believe retaliation is the best path forward, mind. Hungary, for example, voted against the EU's retaliatory package on Wednesday. In a statement to X, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó worried about the impact retaliatory tariffs would have on EU consumers.
"Such measures would cause further damage to [the] European economy and citizens by raising prices," Szijjártó wrote. "The only way forward is negotiations, not retaliation."
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