European Union officials announced on Thursday that they would delay plans for retaliatory tariffs after President Trump’s abrupt decision to hit pause on some of the levies he had placed on Europe and much of the rest of the world.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, on Wednesday, fell far short of providing total relief to Europe. Higher tariffs are still in place for cars and key metals, and a delay is not a cancellation. Uncertainty is rampant, burdening consumers and companies across the continent.
Still, the move did signal what European leaders were hoping for: a possible willingness to negotiate.
Washington’s pivot came just hours after European officials had approved retaliatory levies of 10 to 25 percent on about $23 billion of U.S. imports. But given the American shift, E.U. leaders said on Thursday that they would take a 90-day pause of their own.
“If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced in a statement. “Preparatory work on further countermeasures continues.”
The Trump administration is specifically pausing what it has called “reciprocal” tariffs — across-the-board taxes that apply in different amounts to different countries. Mr. Trump announced those levies on April 2, saying the European Union would face a levy of 20 percent. With his about-face on Wednesday, the bloc would most likely instead face a 10 percent across-the-board tariff for the next 90 days.
But the 25 percent tariffs that Mr. Trump has placed on cars, steel and aluminum, seemed to be still in place — and the retaliation that Europe approved on Wednesday responded to those metal-sector tariffs, not to the tariffs that Mr. Trump has now delayed. The retaliation plan would have applied tariffs of 10 to 25 percent on a wide range of goods, including soybeans, peanut butter and hair spray.
Officials will now “take a bit of time to think, take a bit of time to analyze, take a bit of time to reflect,” Olof Gill, a spokesman for the European Commission, said at a news conference on Thursday.
White House officials had voiced optimism that Europe’s retaliation would not begin to kick in starting on April 15, as had been the original plan.
“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, said on Wednesday.
The Trump administration changed its mind as markets melted down, but it has made clear that it plans to work toward deals during the partial hiatus — which could be good news for European policymakers who have been wanting to talk.
European officials have been trying for weeks to convince their American counterparts to negotiate. 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 in a statement on Wednesday. “That’s why I’ve consistently advocated for a zero-for-zero tariff agreement between the European Union and the United States.”
Mr. Gill, the E.U. spokesman, said it would be possible to “look at other areas going forward” for zero tariffs, depending on America’s openness.
So far, though, there has been limited progress toward a breakthrough. Europeans have found that Americans want to reorder the global trading system, not just chalk up a few quick wins and return to business as usual.
Nor is the pain over for Europe. The U.S. is maintaining tough tariffs on China, which could send a flood of cheap goods pouring into the continent. Painful levies that are crimping the German auto sector remain. And Europeans remain worried about the possibility of pharmaceutical tariffs from America, which could hit places like Ireland and Denmark hard.
Given all of the lingering uncertainty, Europe is still taking a multipronged approach.
It has offered to negotiate with the U.S. even as it keeps retaliation on the table. It has worked to strike trade deals with new partners. And it has pushed forward with efforts to cut red tape and increase industry domestically.
Ms. von der Leyen underscored on Thursday that Europe would continue such strategies, which are meant to make the bloc less reliant on an increasingly fickle United States.
She spoke to leaders from Canada, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, the latest in a volley of calls as she and the European Commission work to tighten trade relations with other allies.
“This crisis has made one thing clear,” she said. “In times of uncertainty, the single market is our anchor of stability and resilience.”
Because even as Europe pushed pause, it was clear that officials were still operating in an environment of chaos. When asked which tariffs were delayed and which remained in play, Mr. Gill was blunt that he was offering his best guess.
“Forgive me if I get this wrong,” he said. “Things are moving fast. At the moment, we’re all doing our best.”