Answers about a potential deadline the United States and EU are working toward for dropping U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs and corresponding EU retaliatory tariffs are not “easily attained,” after senior officials from the two governments reached agreement Tuesday to work toward eliminating the tariffs as part of a broader rapprochement on trade, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told reporters after a Thursday hearing.
For “our airplane manufacturers, our aerospace industry and our automobile manufacturers, steel and aluminum are hugely important to them, and more importantly to me, it’s important to the people they employ,” Moran said, referring to major industries in his home state. “So we are all anxious to have answers as to when this might come to an end. Those are not answers that are easily attained.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to comment.
Testifying during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the U.S. and EU started a “process” Wednesday toward strengthening trade ties, with the view that any result would include solving issues related to the United States’ June 1 imposition of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs on the EU.
In addition to working toward resolving steel and aluminum tariff-related issues, leaders of the trading partners agreed to work toward zero tariffs in non-automotive industrial goods and withhold the imposition of any new tariffs as long as the U.S. and EU remain negotiating.