The European Commission will announce on Thursday details of its next countermeasures against U.S. tariffs should negotiations with Washington fail, European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "Tomorrow we will announce next preparatory steps, both in the area of possible rebalancing measures, and also in the areas important for the further discussions," Sefcovic told a news conference in Singapore after the signing of a digital trade agreement with the Southeast Asian country.

The European Union plans to hit about €100 billion ($113 billion) in US goods with additional tariffs in the event ongoing trade talks fail to yield a satisfactory result for the bloc, Bloomberg News reported. The proposed retaliatory measures will be shared with member states as early as Wednesday and consultations will last for a month before the list is finalized. The list could change in that time.

The two brands sold 3,269 and 757 plugin-hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), respectively, in the bloc in March, up from near zero sales in July 2024 when provisional tariffs were first introduced, research firm Rho Motion said in a report. EU tariffs of up to 45.3% on Chinese-built battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) came into full effect in November to prevent a flood of cheap cars. Facing disruption from U.S. tariffs, the EU and China are negotiating a relaxation of the European levies.

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Monday that he sees greater momentum for ratification of the long-delayed trade agreement between the South American bloc Mercosur and the European Union as geopolitical and trade tensions grow, Reuters reported. Following 25 years of talks, the free trade deal, which had divided European nations, was finalized in December. But it still requires legalization, translation, and approval by member nations from both blocs.

E.U. officials ​announced on Thursday that they would delay their plans for retaliatory tariffs after President Trump’s abrupt decision to hit pause on some of the levies he had placed on Europe and much of the rest of the world, the New York Times reported. Mr. Trump’s announcement, a day before, had signaled what European leaders were hoping for: a possible willingness to negotiate. Washington’s pivot came just hours after European officials had approved retaliatory levies of 10 to 25 percent on about $23 billion of U.S. imports. But given the American shift in stance, E.U.

European Union member states voted Wednesday to approve retaliatory tariffs on $23 billion in goods in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, as the largest U.S. trading partner described them as “unjustified and damaging," the Associated Press reported. The tariffs will go into effect in stages, with some on April 15 and others on May 15 and Dec. 1. The EU executive commission didn’t immediately provide a list of the goods. Members of the 27-country bloc repeated their preference for a negotiated deal to settle trade issues.

The European Commission proposed counter-tariffs of 25% on a range of U.S. goods on Monday in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium, a document seen by Reuters showed. The tariffs on some goods will take effect May 16 and others later in the year, on December 1, the document said. The goods are wide-ranging and include diamonds, eggs, dental floss, sausages and poultry. The counter-tariffs on almonds and soybeans will take effect on December 1. Read more.

President Donald Trump's increased tariffs on all U.S. steel and aluminum imports took effect on Wednesday, stepping up a campaign to reorder global trade in favor of the U.S. and drawing swift retaliation from Europe, Reuters reported. Trump's action to bulk up protections for American steel and aluminum producers restores effective global tariffs of 25% on all imports of the metals and extends the duties to hundreds of downstream products made from the metals, from nuts and bolts to bulldozer blades and soda cans.