Hit by three waves of painful US tariffs since President Donald Trump returned to office, the European Union's response has been a high-wire act, balancing calibrated retaliation with a push for negotiations to avert an all-out trade war.

- In March, Trump fired his first shot against the 27-country European Union with 25 percent levies on steel and aluminium imports;

- He then slapped 25-percent tariffs on all foreign-made cars, in effect since last week;

- And in his biggest move, Trump ordered 20 percent tariffs on all other EU goods among a raft of levies on dozens of countries including China, which came into force Wednesday.

The EU's approach so far has been think first, then act.

After the metals tariffs hit in March, it gave itself a month to fine-tune a list of US goods to target -- ranging from soybeans to makeup and motorcycles, and weighted towards states held by Trump's Republicans.

EU capitals are to green light this list during a meeting Wednesday. Once approved, the majority of the tariffs will kick in........

© International Business Times