WATERLOO, IOWA - DECEMBER 19: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign event on December 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa. Iowa Republicans will be the first to select their party's nomination for the 2024 presidential race, when they go to caucus on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
United States President Donald Trump has threatened a 200 percent tariff on alcohol from European Union (EU) countries.
The threat is in retaliation to the region’s “nasty 50% tariff on whisky” from the US.
The alcohol tariffs are the latest shots in an escalating trade war between the US and its top trading partners, a move initiated by Trump on Wednesday.
The US president had imposed a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminium coming into the country.
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The EU responded by saying it would raise its levies on up to $28bn worth of US goods, including boats, bourbon and motorbikes, from April 1.
Trump later said he would respond to the countermeasures with additional levies, saying the White House would be “doing reciprocal tariffs so whatever they charge us with, we’re charging them. Nobody can complain about that”.
He said if the 50 percent tariff is not removed “immediately”, the US tariff will target all wines, Champagnes and alcoholic products coming out of EU represented countries.
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“This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US,” Trump said.
Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, said the response was intended to be “strong but proportionate”, and added that the EU stood “ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue”.
“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and worse for consumers,” she said.
“Nobody needs that – on both sides, neither in the European Union nor in the United States.”
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The commission president cautioned that the economic disruption threatened jobs and would drive prices up.
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