BRUSSELS: The EU on Thursday vowed unity and to retaliate swiftly against the Trump administration’s harsh tariffs on steel and aluminium imports as Europe blasted Washington’s ‘America First’ protectionism.

European powers had for months hoped to lure US President Donald Trump away from his tariff threat, but now faced the harsh reality of a looming trade war with their transatlantic ally.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed the shock duties as “illegal” and said they risked sparking a disastrous “spiral” of retaliatory measures.

Europe will respond in a “firm and united” way to US tariffs, Merkel said with the pressure higher than ever to mend differences within the EU on how to tackle the Trump threat.

Export powerhouse Germany is highly reluctant to deepen the trade war, and until the last minute hoped to reason with Trump.

Instead, the American president ignored Germany’s pleas and doubled down on protectionism by threatening a separate wave of duties on car imports in a direct affront to German automakers.

France had defended a tougher line, rejecting any serious talks on trade with the US until the tariff threat lifted.

But now, “it is important that the European response is as coordinated as possible,” a French ministry source said.

Bad day: “This is a bad day for the world trade,” European Commission President Juncker told a conference in Brussels after Washington said new tariffs would be effective from 0400 GMT Friday.

“The European Union cannot react to that without any kind of reaction,” said Juncker, whose commission handles trade matters for the 28 member states.

In anticipation, the EU already drew up a long list of counter-measures against the US, which include equivalent duties on a whole range of products including cranberries, motorcycles and bourbon whiskey.

As a precautionary measure, the commission, notified the World Trade Organisation of eventual counter duties on May 18 that could come into force 30 days later and would affect some 2.8 billion euros in products.

The commission is now detailing those measures, but the final decision to greenlight the counter-measures falls to the EU’s 28 member states, where the split views will be tested.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2018