The decision time for the European Union’s (EU) first response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum produced in the European Union has arrived. This afternoon, the 27 EU member states will vote on the first retaliation to the 25% surcharges Washington has decided on 26 billion euros worth of steel and aluminum imports from the union annually.

Fully confirming the relevant report of protothema.gr published earlier this week, the 27 will vote within the “Trade Barriers Committee” of the EU and then the EU executive body will – immediately – make public the result of the vote.

The Commission has since late last week drawn up a proposed list of US products on which retaliatory tariffs would be imposed, but Brussels chose to revise that list twice to satisfy Italy, France and Ireland, as these EU member states are urgently requesting that US alcoholic beverages be exempted from European retaliation, as otherwise their own wine and whisky exports could be severely affected.

As protothema.gr reported last Monday, and confirmed today by Politico, the European Commission had drawn up a list of US products on which tariffs would be imposed, which includes products of symbolic importance to the US and more focused on the so-called red states. That is, states that elected the Republican party, such as Louisiana, a leading producer of soybeans, as well as Kansas and Nebraska, states that produce significant amounts of beef and poultry.

As a reminder, EU trade policy is the responsibility of the European Commission, not the member states, and the EU executive does not need unanimity of the 27 to impose tariffs on third-country goods. A qualified majority is sufficient for the Commission’s proposal to pass, which in practice means that if 55% of EU member states vote in favour (i.e. 15 out of 27 member states) and the proposal is supported by member states representing at least 65% of the total EU population, the tariffs proposed by the Commission will be approved. If a qualified majority votes against the proposed act, the Commission cannot adopt it. If there is no qualified majority either for or against the proposed act, the Commission can either adopt it or submit a new, amended version.

As protothema.gr is informed, even if the countermeasures to the US tariffs are voted in favour by EU member states – the most likely scenario – it may not publish the final list of US products tonight, which it will do early next week.