Hello and welcome to another MBEX podcast. I'm Sam Wilkin, Brussels news editor, and today

we're going to talk about Europe's response to big US tariffs imposed recently of 25% on steel and 10%

on aluminium. The EU is pitching for an exemption, but how likely is it to succeed and

what could this exemption look like? To answer those questions and more, I'm joined by

our two Brussels-based trade reporters, Poppy Carnell and Joanna Sapinska. Hello, Poppy and Joanna.

Hi, Joanna.

Yohanna, start us off, please. Give us a quick overview of what's at stake. How big a deal is

this for Europe?

This is a very serious issue for the European Union because the magnitude of these measures is really big.

Not only in terms of the value which is estimated at around 1.6

billion euros in additional tariffs, but also in terms of the negative impact it can have on the

global trading system. The European steel industry estimates that EU exports to the US of steel could be cut by half.

This could put in jeopardy some 20,000 jobs in Europe, only in the steel industry.

So what's the EU doing in response to this?

The EU was quick to announce three-pronged strategy to counter the US measures.

It plans to impose extra tariffs on around 200 US products of an estimated value of around

4 billion euros.

The EU is also planning to challenge the US measures at the WTO, the World Trade Organization,

in cooperation with possibly other WTO members.

And it is also planning to impose its own safeguards to block possible imports of steel and aluminium, which could be

redirected from the US.

Okay, so we've got a sort of direct retaliation.

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