EU says it will make strong case for US tariff cuts this week

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission said on Monday it would make a strong case this week for the United States to reduce or eliminate tariffs even after Donald Trump said he would double import duties on steel and aluminium to 50%.

European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic will meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at an OECD gathering in Paris on Wednesday, while Commission technical teams will be in discussions with counterparts in Washington this week.

The Commission, which oversees trade policy for the 27-nation European Union, said it was prioritising negotiations to resolve the conflict.

"We don't want to go down the route of tariffs. Rather than have them increase, we want them to decrease and where possible eliminate them," a Commission spokesperson told a press conference on Monday.

"That remains the case, that remains our priority. We will be making that case strongly both at technical level and at political level this week."

The EU has said it strongly regrets the planned doubling of steel tariffs.

The EU currently faces 25% tariffs on steel and cars and for Trump and "reciprocal" tariffs on most EU goods, which were provisionally set at 20% for the EU but is being held at 10% during a 90-day pause until July.

The EU imposed, but immediately suspended, a first set of counter tariffs on 21 billion euros ($24 billion) of annual U.S. imports package in response to U.S. metals duties.

It is also weighing a response to the U.S. car and broader tariffs that would hit up to 95 billion euros of U.S. imports.

The Commission said that, in the absence of a mutually acceptable solution, these countermeasures would take effect automatically on July 14, or earlier if circumstances require.

($1 = 0.8759 euros)

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Alex Richardson)