Motorbikes, jeans and bourbon to be hit in response to US duties on steel and aluminium

The EU will impose tariffs on US imports ranging from Harley-Davidson motorbikes to jeans from next month in retaliation over Donald Trump’s decision to put duties on European aluminium and steel.

Despite the apparent reluctance of the UK’s international trade secretary, Liam Fox, to publicly back the EU’s proposed “tit for tat” measures, the European commission said it had the full support of all 28 member states to act.

The EU is finalising the list it will submit to the World Trade Organization (WTO) but the bloc aims to introduce “rebalancing” tariffs on about €2.8bn (£2.5bn) worth of US steel as well as industrial and agricultural products, including bourbon, peanut butter, cranberries and orange juice.

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The EU has also taken a complaint to the WTO. Should the case still be ongoing after three years, the EU plans to impose further tariffs of €3.6bn on US products.

Trump brought in tariffs of 25% on EU steel imports and 10% on imported aluminium on 1 June, citing “national security” interests.

After a meeting of senior EU officials, the European commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič told reporters in Brussels that the EU regretted the White House’s “illegal” act.

He said: “The new duties start applying in July. It is a measured and proportionate response to the unilateral and illegal decision taken by the United States.”

Fox, an advocate of Brexit, has been cautious in backing the EU’s retaliatory measures in public. He has also suggested that the UK is likely to be handed an exemption from the US tariffs once the country has left the EU.

However, Jyrki Katainen, the commission’s vice-president for jobs and a former Finnish prime minister, said that all the member states had agreed with the action to be taken against US importers and recognised the need to stand together.

He said: “We have had the full support from all the member states on these issues which we are about to propose now. All the member states understand that if they want to defend rules and trade we have to play by the book. It is difficult to assess what President Trump will decide to do next but this is our response.”

Meanwhile the UK, France and Germany have signed a joint letter demanding that European companies are spared from US sanctions imposed on Iran after Trump’s decision to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Tehran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

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The three EU member states were signatories to the 2015 deal, which sought to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Their letter to the US Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, seeks confirmation that EU interests will not be hit by secondary sanctions on companies working in Iran.

They write: “Building on our discussions at several occasions, as close allies we expect that the extraterritorial effects of US secondary sanctions will not be enforced on EU entities and individuals, and the United States will thus respect our political decision and the good faith of economic operators within EU legal territory.”