European Union keeps options open as it readies response to expanding US tariffs

The 27-nation bloc faces 25% U.S. import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and "reciprocal" tariffs of 10% for almost all other goods that could rise to 20% after President Donald Trump's 90-day pause.

The European Union will prepare countermeasures to the multitude of U.S. tariffs imposed on EU imports during President Donald Trump's 90-day pause, with all options on the table, European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday.

The EU trade chief said U.S. tariffs now covered 70% of EU goods trade to the United States and that could rise to 97% after further U.S. investigations into pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other products.

Sefcovic said a negotiated solution with the United States remained the EU's clear and preferred outcome.

"We now need the U.S. to show its readiness to make progress towards a fair and balanced solution," he told a debate in the European Parliament.

The 27-nation bloc faces 25% U.S. import tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars and "reciprocal" tariffs of 10% for almost all other goods that could rise to 20% after President Donald Trump's 90-day pause.

Sefcovic said the European Union would use the pause until July 8 to prepare further rebalancing measures and ensure a level playing field if talks failed.

"All options remain on the table here," Sefcovic said.

The European Union has suspended its own countermeasures against the steel tariffs to give room for negotiations, although they appear to have made only limited progress.

Sefcovic said the European Union would also guard against possible surges of imports due to trade diverted by Trump's tariff wall, adding that a task force set up to monitor trade diversion would produce its first results in mid-May.