In response to the imposition of new, unjustified US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium imports, the Commission has launched swift and proportionate countermeasures on US imports into the EU.
In response to the imposition of new, unjustified US tariffs on EU steel and aluminium imports, the Commission has launched swift and proportionate countermeasures on US imports into the EU.
The full list hasn’t been announced, the stuff applying from the first of April are the same counter-measures applied last time (which won the trade war) in response to 8bn of harm done by US steel and aluminium tariffs, then another, as of yet unspecified, package will come into force mid-April, responding to another 18bn.
Notably, this is an administrative act and pretty much automatic. Applying the Anti-Coercion Instrument (“trade bazooka”) with all the goodies (suspension of IP rights etc) is a political decision, the commission can make a proposal based on its own assessments and complaints, or complaints of member states, but ultimately it’s the council which decides whether things get implemented. Qualified majority, that is 55% of states representing 65% of the population, unless fewer than four states vote against at which point the population quorum doesn’t apply.
I assume that’s what this comic is?
Yep.