G-20 Rome

The Biden administration will ease tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union under an agreement reached Saturday, resolving a Trump-era tension that for years has tarnished trade relations between the longtime allies.

The EU will be permitted to send a set amount of steel and aluminum each year into the United States duty free under the new arrangement. The White House hasn’t specified how much will be allowed or what the duties will be on imports that exceed the limits, but the current tariffs are 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum.

The new arrangement required months of intense negotiations among top trade officials and has been viewed on both sides of the Atlantic as a compromise that the trading partners made for the sake of a fresh start following four years of discord under former President Donald Trump.



“Today's announcement delivers on President Biden's vision to turn the page on past disputes and begin a new chapter of enhanced trans-Atlantic relations,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told reporters on Saturday.

EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis suggested in a tweet Saturday that the deal will not be permanent, describing the latest developments as a "pause" in the dispute. Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will announce more details on Sunday, he noted.

The trading partners also agreed to develop a long-term plan that both confronts China over its excess steel production and applies pressure on exporters of carbon-intensive steel. U.S. officials described it as a first-of-its kind deal. U.S. officials described the deal as a first-of-its kind but did not outline specific commitments, saying those would be negotiated later with input from other major steel-producing economies.

“Not only does today's deal remove one of the largest bilateral irritants in the U.S.-EU relationship, it actually transforms it into a joint forward progress on two central challenges,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on the briefing call.

But while both sides share those priorities, they have not always agreed on an approach.

The Biden administration has prodded Brussels to take a tougher posture toward Beijing on trade and other issues, but some European leaders say they’re more inclined to engage with rather than oppose China. And while the EU is pursuing a carbon border tax on steel and other products, such proposals are more difficult to implement in the U.S. for political and practical reasons.

Trump stoked the ire of trading partners around the world when he announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in 2018, arguing that inexpensive foreign imports were unfairly undermining U.S. producers and thus posing a threat to national security. His administration brokered alternative trade measures with Canada, Mexico and other allies, but kept the EU duties in place.

Leaders of the world's biggest economies made a compromise commitment Sunday to reach carbon neutrality "by or around mid-century" as they wrapped up a two-day summit that was laying the groundwork for the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

According to the final communique, the Group of 20 leaders also agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad, but set no target for phasing out coal domestically — a clear nod to coal-dependent countries including China and India and a blow to Britain which had hoped for more solid commitments ahead of the Glasgow meeting.



The Group of 20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and summit host Italy had been looking for solid targets on how to reduce emissions while helping poor countries deal with the impact of rising temperatures.

Without them, momentum could be lost for the larger annual talks that officially opened Sunday in Glasgow and where countries from around the globe will be represented, including poor ones most vulnerable to rising seas, desertification and other effects.

According to the communique, the G-20 reaffirmed past commitments by rich countries to mobilize $100 billion annually to help poorer countries cope with climate change, and committed to scaling up financing for helping them adapt.

The sticking point remained the deadline to reach carbon neutrality or "net zero" emissions, meaning a balance between greenhouse gases added to and removed from the atmosphere. Going into the summit Italy had all-but conceded it would only be able to secure commitments to reach net-zero emissions "by mid-century," rather than a specific year.

According to the final communique, the G-20 leaders said they will "accelerate our actions across mitigation, adaptation and finance, acknowledging the key relevance of achieving global net zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century."

A French official said "mid-century" meant 2050 in the strict sense "but given the diversity of the G-20 countries ... it means everyone agrees to a common goal while providing a bit of flexibility to take into account national diversity." Speaking on condition of anonymity, the French official cited top carbon polluters China and India, as well as Indonesia.