EU has right to take retaliatory measures against US imports - BBG

Bloomberg carried a report on Tuesday, citing that the European (EU) Commission briefed the national government envoys yesterday and noted that the EU has the right to take immediate retaliatory measures against imports of the US products worth 50% of the EU's exports of steel in the US.

Key Details:

Duties can be imposed without waiting for WTO dispute-settlement procedures. And that means if the EU would want to, they can actually take matters into their own hands now - and that would not bode well for market sentiment if that were to happen.

 The list includes steel products, industrial products (including shirts, jeans, cosmetics, motorcycles, boats), agricultural and processed agricultural products (including rice, cranberries, orange juice, maize, whiskey, tobacco products).

It also says that tariffs of 25% may be imposed on products included in the list above.