The EU has announced US food and drink imports will be among products hit with tariffs as it responds to Washington’s decision to tax steel and aluminium shipments.
US food items including meat, seafood, dairy and confectionery will be hit by the newly-announced levy on €26bn ($28.4bn) worth of American goods.
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The EU is also targeting drinks including beer, wine, gin, whiskey, rum, Tequila and non-alcoholic drinks derived from milk.
US spirits industry association DISCUS described Brussels’ announcement as “deeply disappointing”.
Pan-European trade body SpiritsEurope said it was “extremely concerned” by the EU’s decision to line up tariffs on US spirits.
Brussels plans to introduce the tariffs in two steps, starting on 1 April and fully in place from 13 April.
The EU is responding to the US’s 25% tariff on $28bn worth of global imports of steel and aluminium from 4am GMT today (12 March).
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described the US action as “unjustified trade restrictions”.
She added: “As of this morning, the United States is applying a 25% tariff on imports of steel and aluminium. We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and worse for consumers. They are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. Nobody needs that – on both sides, neither in the European Union nor in the United States.
“The European Union must act to protect consumers and business. The counter-measures we take today are strong but proportionate. As the United States is applying tariffs worth $28bn, we are responding with counter-measures of €26bn. This matches the economic scope of the tariffs from the United States.”
But, leaving the door open for the EU and the US to step back from what is increasingly looking like a global trade war, von der Leyen said: “We will always remain open to negotiation. We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs.”
Von der Leyen has charged EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič with resuming his talks to “explore better solutions with the United States”.
Šefčovič said “Today’s tariffs from the United States take us in the wrong direction and the reason is manyfold. The EU-US trade partnership is well balanced and highly profitable to both sides.”
He added: “The US Administration has opted to pursue a harmful course of unjustified tariffs, leaving us with no choice but to respond – and that’s exactly what we are doing.”
The EU’s tariffs on US goods include the re-introduction of tariffs Brussels first imposed during the first Trump administration but then suspended after discussions with President Biden.
Chris Swonger, the president and CEO at DISCUS, said: “The EU’s announcement to reimpose these tariffs on American Whiskey at 50% is deeply disappointing and will severely undercut the successful efforts to rebuild U.S. spirits exports in EU countries.”
Pauline Bastidon, trade and economic affairs director at SpiritsEurope, said spirits had “yet again, spirit drinks have become collateral damage in an unrelated trade dispute”.
She added: “We fail to understand how this will help with the broader, unrelated dispute on steel and aluminium. The EU and US spirits sectors stand united in their steadfast commitment to maintaining transatlantic spirits trade tariff-free.”
Meanwhile, the UK – which is not an EU member – said it would not issue its own immediate measures in response to the US tariffs but was going to “reserve our right to retaliate”.
Cognisant of the UK pursuing a trade deal with Washington, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, told broadcaster Times Radio the tariffs are disappointing but added: “We want to take a pragmatic approach, and we’re already negotiating rapidly toward an economic agreement with the US, with the potential to eliminate additional tariffs.”
