The United States and European Union have agreed to end a festering dispute over US steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, removing an irritant in transatlantic relations and averting a spike in EU retaliatory tariffs, US officials said on Saturday. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the deal will maintain US “Section 232” tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% aluminum, while allowing “limited volumes” of EU-produced metals into the United States duty free.

US officials did not specify the volume of duty-free steel to be allowed into the United States under a tariff-rate quota system agreed upon with the EU. The deal grants an additional two years of duty-free access above the quota for EU steel products that won Commerce Department exclusions in the past year, US officials said.

Europe exported around 5 million tons of steel annually to the United States prior to Trump’s imposition of the tariffs on national security grounds.

Source: VOV5