They'd take effect July 14th if tariff talks don't make progress.

The EU headquarters is seen in 2022. The EU and U.S. have agreed to "accelerate talks" on tariffs. Virginia Mayo - The Associated Press

By SAM MCNEIL | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The European Union on Monday said it is preparing "countermeasures" against the United States after the Trump administration's surprise tariffs on steel rattled global markets and complicated the ongoing, wider tariff negotiations between Brussels and Washington.

Last week, ahead of Friday's surprise announcement, EU Commission President Ursula van der Leyen and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to "accelerate talks" on a deal. "In the event that our negotiations do not lead to a balanced outcome, the EU is prepared to impose countermeasures, including in response to this latest tariff increase," European Commission spokesperson Olaf Gill told a news conference in Brussels.

He said the EU is finalizing an expanded list of countermeasures that would automatically take effect on July 14 or earlier. That's the date when a 90-day pause, intended to ease negotiations, ends in tariffs announced by the two economic powerhouses on each other. About halfway through that grace period, Trump announced a 50% tariffs on steel imports.

Futures for metal spike

Futures tracking the prices U.S. manufacturers pay for aluminum and steel surged after Trump said he would double tariffs on the metals.

Contracts linked to the prices that manufacturers pay to get aluminum delivered to the US Midwest jumped 54% to the highest since at least 2013 on the Comex exchange in New York on Monday - offering an early glimpse of the much higher costs for American factories, with import levies set to rise to 50% from Wednesday.

Aluminum used in everything from beer cans to engine blocks and window frames was priced at a premium of 58 cents a pound, or about $1,280 a ton, in the Midwest over benchmark London contracts. That suggests U.S. buyers could end up paying about 50% more than international competitors to get hold of the metal.

Trump hopes the increased levies will protect margins for domestic mills and spur investment in new production capacity, and shares of U.S. steel and aluminum makers surged in after-hours trading after the announcement on Friday. But construction companies have warned that levies on steel and aluminum-which Trump had already raised from 10% to 25% -will increase the cost of critical building materials.

More than 80% of the aluminum used in the U.S. is supplied via imports, while less than 20% of the country's steel is sourced from overseas, according to Morgan Stanley.

EU pushes for a deal

Trump's return to the White House has come with an unrivaled barrage of tariffs, with levies threatened, added and, often, taken away. Top officials at the EU's executive commission says they're pushing hard for a trade deal to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods.

Negotiations will continue on Wednesday in Paris in a meeting between the EU's top trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, and his counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The EU could buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., and lower duties on cars, but it isn't likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax -which is akin to a sales tax - or open up the EU to American beef.

The EU has offered the U.S. a "zero for zero" outcome in which tariffs would be removed on both sides for industrial goods including autos. Trump has dismissed that.

Mark Burton at Bloomberg News contributed to this report.