Washington, US – US President Donald Trump Thursday threatened to slap a 200 percent tariff on European wine and spirits in retaliation for Brussels’ plan to tax American whiskey imports, a move that risks deepening the ongoing transatlantic trade dispute.
Declaring the European Union was “created to take advantage” of the US, Trump warned that unless the bloc backs down, the steep levies will take effect, a decision that could send shockwaves through the global alcoholic beverage industry.
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“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200 percent tariff on all wines, champagnes, and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU represented countries. This will be great for the wine and champagne businesses in the US,” the president wrote on his social network Truth Social.
The US threat comes after the EU on Wednesday announced measures in response to the 25% tariffs activated by Washington on Tuesday on all steel and aluminum exported to the US.
Brussels has said it will tax US imports worth up to 26 billion euros (about $28,165 billion), which means reactivating tariffs on American whiskey that the EU had already implemented during Trump’s first term (2017-2021).
Representatives of the alcoholic beverage sector in both the US and the EU said that the exchange of retaliatory tariffs from Washington and Brussels could have devastating effects on the industry.
A 200 percent tariff, as threatened by Trump, would be particularly damaging to the European wine sector, as it is the main alcoholic beverage that the bloc sells to the US.
Nearly 10 percent of all wine produced in the EU – 80 percent of it in Spain, France and Italy – is exported to the US, according to the European Commission.
Since Trump’s return to the White House on Jan 20, he has aggressively implemented tariffs on imports from US partners to correct what he considers unfair trade deficits for Washington, to attract foreign corporate capital investment, or as a pressure measure to reduce the flow of immigration or fentanyl.
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