EU Commission head discusses response to tariffs with auto, steel and pharma leaders

By Julia Payne and Maggie Fick

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) -European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held a call with metals industry representatives on Monday and was due to speak later to the automobile sector about how to respond to U.S. tariffs.

The calls aimed to collect data for further counter-measures beyond Brussels' response to Washington's steel duties, which will be voted on later this week. A call with the European pharmaceuticals industry is planned for Tuesday.

Major stock indexes and oil prices plummeted on Monday on fears that U.S. President Donald Trump's duties could push up prices, weaken demand and even trigger a global recession.

Von der Leyen's invitation said the EU would this year propose "a trade measure replacing the steel safeguards as of 1 July 2026" to protect against "negative trade-related effects caused by global overcapacities".

After the call, the Commission statement said the industry had "underlined the urgent need for the EU to propose new trade defence measures for steel - beyond the existing safeguards, which are due to expire in June 2026 - including to address potential deflection of exports".

The sector also expressed concern about the falling volume of aluminium and steel scrap for recycling. The Commission said last month it would consider export duties on EU scrap sales. It also tightened existing safeguards on steel to cut imports by 15% on April 1.

"Constructive meeting ... Sense of urgency, clarity of purpose is much increased compared to a few months ago," a source who attended the call said.

Europe's no. 2 steelmaker, Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, said "binding minimum quotas of 'European content' in private and public procurement" were key to strengthening the EU market.

The auto industry group in Brussels, ACEA, has requested a negotiated solution, a spokesperson added. Carmakers have been pushing the EU to lower its tariffs on car imports from the U.S. BMW in January urged a cut to 2.5% from 10%.

Their call with the Commission was set to include lobby groups as well as CEOs and chairs from BMW, Volkswagen, Stellantis, Scania, Daimler Truck and Bosch.

On pharmaceuticals, the Commission initially invited the chief executives of EU-headquartered companies for a meeting, three industry sources said.

A fourth source said the Commission may have later invited Swiss-based firms such as Novartis and Roche. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm this. Roche said it was an active member of EFPIA but declined to comment further.

The European pharma trade lobby EFPIA and the biotech lobby Europabio both said they were attending, as did the generics group Medicines for Europe.

Pharmaceuticals were exempt from the duties Trump announced last week, but he says they will face separate tariffs.

The industry will push the Commission to spell out how it plans to enable pharma and biotech firms to manufacture more in Europe, a source attending Tuesday morning's meeting said.

They said that could include streamlining regulatory processes that have recently discouraged some companies from conducting clinical trials in Europe.

(Reporting by Julia Payne and Maggie Fick; Editing by Kevin Liffey)