Paris — Trade tensions between the EU and the US ran high on Thursday as the clock ticked for US steel and aluminium tariffs against European producers to kick in. On Wednesday, US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross rejected calls to extend exemptions on the punishing import tariffs and warned that duties for massive US imports of cars were on the horizon. The prospect of the metals tariffs taking effect on Friday caused mounting frustration in Europe, the single-largest source of US steel imports. "World trade is not a gunfight at the OK Corral," French economy minister Bruno le Maire quipped on Thursday, in reference to a 1957 western movie.
Le Maire warned that the EU would take "all necessary measures" if the US imposed the tariffs. "It’s not everyone attacking the other and we see who remains standing at the end," he said, declaring that the stiff taxes would be "unjustified, unjustifiable and dangerous". German foreign minister Heiko Maas, meanwhile, warned against the threa...
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