President Trump’s announcement last week that he will impose a 20 percent tariff on goods coming from the European Union sent shock waves across the 27-nation bloc, the latest move in an unfolding trade war that is tearing the close partners apart.
This week, Europe will push ahead with its first countermaneuver — one of potentially several to come.
E.U. officials have spent the last several weeks refining a list of retaliatory tariffs that they plan to put into place on April 15. They are showing member states’ foreign and trade ministers their suggestions in Luxembourg on Monday, and a vote on the list is expected on Wednesday.
Those tariffs would come in response to steel and aluminum levies that Washington previously announced, and they are expected to be sweeping; the preliminary list covered everything from whiskey and motorcycles to boats and soybeans. But they would also be just the start, an opening bid in Europe’s response to Mr. Trump’s tariff rollout.
European officials are working on additional plans to respond to car tariffs that were announced in late March, and to the across-the-board tariffs of 20 percent that Mr. Trump announced last week.
E.U. leaders are hitting back in stages for two reasons. First, they needed time to digest the flurry of announcements that have come from the White House, hoping to design a response that would inflict maximum pain on the United States while minimizing the fallout for European consumers and companies.
They are also hoping that by phasing in their response, they will give the Trump administration time to come to the negotiating table. The ultimate goal is still to make a deal to avoid an all-out trade war.
“The E.U.’s committed to meaningful negotiations but also prepared to defend our interests,” Maros Sefcovic, the bloc’s trade commissioner, wrote on social media on Friday night following what he described as a “frank,” two-hour meeting with his American counterparts.
As the trade conflict heats up, the stakes are high. The European Union is one of America’s most important trading partners. And the United States is by far the largest export market for European goods.
Given that close relationship, hitting back at American tariffs is likely to be a painful exercise, one that also costs European companies and consumers, pushing up prices on the tariffed goods.
European officials are cognizant that an escalating trade war could be painful on both sides of the Atlantic. That is why they edited the lists: Officials wanted to take into account feedback from across the continent.
The part of the list that originally included whiskey tariffs was initially meant to take hold on March 31, in fact, but was delayed for further refinement after Mr. Trump threatened to respond to it by slapping a 200 percent tariff on all European alcohol coming into the United States. Such a move would be crushing for French and Italian winemakers.
The delay came after officials — including from France — suggested that hitting whiskey and provoking American retaliation on alcohol would be a misstep.
That episode underscored the challenge in maintaining a firm and united front in responding to tariffs. Countries across the continent have different economic priorities and different appetites for hitting back at the United States.
Some countries in northern European countries have been adamant that the European Union must be forceful in its response, but Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has called the idea that Italy must choose between the United States and the bloc “childish.” She has also cautioned against harsh retaliation.
E.U. officials had initially hoped to avoid a trade conflict altogether.
They spent last fall and early this year dangling carrots — like ramped-up purchases of American liquid natural gas — in front of their American counterparts, hoping to avoid a showdown.
But that strategy failed. Instead, Washington has taken a far more aggressive tack than many analysts and officials had expected. That has left European policymakers racing to come up with a plan.
Notably, European leaders are contemplating hitting back at American service exports — and specifically at big technology companies like Google that do a huge amount of E.U. business.
Several European diplomats have said that targeting technology companies is a distinct possibility, should the trade war escalate, and a French official made it clear in public remarks last week that online services could be the first in the cross hairs.
Yet the real goal is a deal.
Elon Musk, the technology entrepreneur and Mr. Trump’s close adviser, said on Saturday that he hoped that Europe and the United States would move “to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone,” speaking during a videoconference appearance with Italy’s far-right League party in Florence.
European officials have demonstrated a willingness to lower tariffs on cars and other products, so lower duties in at least some sectors are a possibility, if the United States is willing to talk.
But resolution may take time. On Sunday, Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said during a televised interview that issues with trading partners were not the “kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.”
