European Union officials had just approved retaliatory levies of 10 to 25 percent on about $23 billion of American imports when President Trump abruptly changed tack on Wednesday, announcing that he would hit pause on some of the tariffs he had placed on Europe and much of the rest of the world.
Mr. Trump’s announcement signaled what European leaders had been hoping for: a willingness to negotiate. Financial markets surged on the news, greeting it as evidence that an all-out trade war might be averted.
But European leaders on Thursday morning were taking time to assess exactly what the announcement meant and how they should respond.
The Trump administration is pausing what it has called “reciprocal” tariffs — across-the board taxes that apply in different amounts to different countries — that Mr. Trump announced on April 2. At that time, he said the European Union would face a 20 percent tariff. With his about-face on Wednesday, it is likely that the bloc would instead face a 10 percent across-the-board tariff for the next 90 days, during the pause.
But the 25 percent tariffs that Mr. Trump has placed on both cars and on steel and aluminum seemed to be still in place — and Europe’s retaliation, approved on Wednesday, was in response to those metal-sector tariffs, not to the tariffs that Mr. Trump has now delayed. European Union officials have yet to announce whether that retaliation would go ahead.
Officials “will now take the necessary time to assess this latest development, in close consultation with our member states and industry, before deciding on next steps,” Olof Gill, a spokesman for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, told reporters in a written statement on Thursday.
Still, White House officials voiced optimism that Europe’s retaliatory levies, which were meant to phase in starting April 15, would now be delayed.
“I think what’s going to happen is they are going to be pushed out for the 90 days, so they have time to negotiate with the president without having something hanging over their head,” Howard Lutnick, the U.S. commerce secretary, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Donald Tusk, prime minister of Poland, wrote on social media, “Let’s make the best of the next 90 days.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement on Thursday that she welcomed Mr. Trump’s delay and wanted to negotiate.
She called the announcement “an important step towards stabilizing the global economy.”
Ms. von der Leyen has in recent days suggested repeatedly that both Europe and the U.S. should drop tariffs on industrial products, including cars, to zero.
“Tariffs are taxes that only hurt businesses and consumers,” she said. “That’s why I’ve consistently advocated for a zero-for-zero tariff agreement between the European Union and the United States.”
But she also underscored that Europe would continue its strategies of striking new trade alliances, deepening internal trade between nations and working on improving its own competitiveness, measures meant to make it less reliant on an increasingly fickle United States.
“This crisis has made one thing clear,” she wrote. “In times of uncertainty, the single market is our anchor of stability and resilience.”
