March 13 (UPI) — President Donald Trump threatened the European Union Thursday with a retaliatory 200% tariff on all the alcoholic products it exports to the United States.
Trump made the announcement via Truth Social, first calling the EU “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the world,” then adding that the organization was created “for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States.”
The declaration came after the EU moved Tuesday to restore import taxes on several American items.
In a press release from the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, the commission stated that it was responding to “the imposition of new, unjustified U.S. tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports” with “swift and proportionate countermeasures” on American imports, including a previously held suspension of countermeasures that had been put in place during the first Trump administration in 2018 and 2020.
The suspension, now set to lapse on April 1, targets a wide variety of products imported from the U.S., which the commission says is a response to “the economic harm done” on about $8.6 billion in EU exports of aluminum and steel.
The EU is also putting together a package of tariffs on U.S. exports by mid-April worth more than $28 billion, which would match “economic scope of the U.S. tariffs,” impacting nearly $20 billion of EU exports. The commission further reported that it regrets the Trump administration’s “decision to impose such tariffs, considering them unjustified, disruptive to transatlantic trade, and harmful to businesses and consumers, often resulting in higher prices.,” and that the EU stands ready “to find a negotiated solution.”
There are a substantial number of American items listed as “subject to possible commercial policy measures,” with whisky among them. Trump singled whisky out, posting that the EU put a “nasty 50% tariff” on the beverage. He continued that “If this tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% tariff on all wines, champagnes, [and] alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU represented countries.”
The European Committee of Wine Companies, which represents EU wine companies, had already said Wednesday it was calling for the EU to leave wine out of the “trade dispute” between the U.S. and the EU, and “strongly opposes the inclusion of U.S. wines on the EU list of targeted products.”
Trump closed his Truth Social post by saying his penalizing tariff “will be great for the wine and champagne businesses in the U.S.”
