A customer pours a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau wine at a restaurant in Paris
A customer pours a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau wine at a restaurant in Paris
President Donald Trump threatened to escalate a trade war with the EU after the bloc announced 50 per cent tariffs on US whiskey and several other American products to kick in on April 1, in retaliation to a batch of US tariffs that took effect this week.
“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200 per cent tariff on all wines, Champagnes, and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU represented countries,” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday.
Trump’s jab came a day after EU leaders announced that they would respond to the US imposing 25 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminum and related products.
The 27-nation bloc plans to react in two waves: First, with tariffs as high as 50 per cent on US products including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Kentucky bourbon, which will take effect on April 1; and second, a series of measures in mid-April that would target farm products and industrial goods that are important to Republican districts.
European leaders have made it clear that they would prefer not to enact the tariffs, and would like to negotiate with Trump.
“Tariffs are taxes,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said in a statement on Wednesday.
But with little progress towards a deal, EU leaders have decided to hit back in politically sensitive product categories, hoping to inflict enough pain that they would drive Americans to the negotiation table.
This is not the first time the spirits and alcohol industry has been caught in a trade war. Less extreme tariffs were placed on liquor and other alcohol during Trump’s first term, and the industry’s recovery from that hit has been long and gruelling. Industry executives have been lobbying in Washington, Brussels and other European capitals to be spared this time — and expressed alarm on Wednesday that they were once again caught in the crossfire.
“Reimposing these debilitating tariffs at a time when the spirits industry continues to face a slowdown” will “further curtail growth and negatively impact distillers and farmers in states across the country”, Chris Swonger, the chief executive of the Washington-based Distilled Spirits Council, said. Trump wrote in his social media post that the tariffs “will be great for the wine and Champagne businesses in the US”.
New York Times News Service