EU leaders slam Trump’s ‘illegal’ tariffs, threaten retaliation as world teeters on edge of global trade war
Canadian leader Justin Trudeau, Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron all voiced their fury at the president and pledged swift action
The world’s largest economies stood on the brink of all-out trade war as the EU, Canada and Mexico drew up retaliatory measures to Washington’s stinging steel and aluminium tariffs that came into effect on Friday.
Washington angered its major allies by slapping duties of 25 per cent and 10 per cent on imports of aluminium and steel.
The measures had actually been decided back in March, but at the time US President Donald Trump gave Canada and the EU – the biggest sources of foreign aluminium and steel respectively for the US – a grace period until May 31.
On Thursday, however, Trump announced that those exemptions were not being extended and his decision immediately drew furious responses from Canadian President Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“These tariffs are an affront to the long-standing security partnership between Canada and the United States,” said Trudeau, as Ottawa hit back with retaliatory duties on US imports worth up to Can$16.6 billion (US$12.8 billion).