EU Commission imposes additional duties on US goods

The EU Commission has announced its intention to impose additional ad valorem duties of 7 or 20 percent on imports of certain US products from 8 May 2020. The background to this is the unlimited increase in customs duties on imports of certain aluminum and steel products by the United States at the end of January this year. This unilateral increase in US tariffs has been in force since February 8, 2020.

In addition, the EU Commission is planning to impose a further 4.4 percent ad valorem duty on imports of certain products of US origin under implementing regulation (EU) 2020/502 – either from February 8, 2023 or following the decision of the WTO dispute settlement body.

The US products affected by the duties can be found in the relevant entry in the Official Journal.

The EU additional tariffs are to be imposed as long as the US applies the corresponding safeguard measures on its part.

The following products are affected

• Step 1: goods falling within CN code 9613 80 00 (cigarette lighters and lighters other than pocket gas lighters) and goods falling within CN code 3926 30 00 (fittings for furniture, coachwork and the like, of plastics)
• Step 2: goods falling within CN code 9504 40 00 (playing cards)