As Trump reignites trade war with EU, Brussels targets re-routed Chinese metals

EU ready with new measures for Chinese steel and aluminium to stop re-routing via US ports, as tariffs on US hit mainly Republican states

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A buyer surveys the shelves at a metal supplies business in Burbank, California. The United States has reinstated tariffs on metals, specifically steel and aluminum, from around the world. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 3:22pm, 12 Mar 2025Updated: 6:24pm, 12 Mar 2025

Hours after the European Union and United States rekindled a years-old trade war, Brussels confirmed on Wednesday that it was ready to impose new measures on Chinese steel and aluminium exports to stop them being re-routed from American ports to Europe.

Earlier in the day, the EU retaliated strongly against President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium with sweeping duties of its own, sparking fears of a broader trade war that could hit the global economy.

After the US reinstated 2018’s tariffs on the metals from around the world, increased the rate on aluminium products from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, and extended their scope to cover everything from cookware and window frames to gym equipment and part-metal furniture, Europe hit back immediately with duties on a broad range of products.

Senior EU officials, meanwhile, said that if they observed that products deemed to be part of “non-market overcapacity” – shorthand for certain Chinese exports – were being diverted from the US to Europe, then the bloc was ready to take new measures to protect European industry.

These would be in addition to a 2018 “steel safeguard measure” that applied a tariff-rate quota on Chinese steel products, which will expire in 2026.

“Whatever we do would be over and above the safeguard measures,” the senior official said.