Donald Trump threatens Europe with 200% tariffs on wine, champagne and different EU alcoholic drinks | International | EUROtoday

Not a single day with out his tariff menace. The US president, Donald Trump, has threatened Thursday with imposing 200% levies on alcoholic merchandise from France or different European nations. The measure would reply to the tariffs introduced on Tuesday by the European Union, together with 50% to the American bubon, as retaliation on the 25% fee that the United States accepted this week to the imports of metal and aluminum.

Trump has expressed his final warning, as traditional, in Truth, his social community. “The European Union,” he wrote, is “one of the most hostile and abusive tax and tariff authorities in the world, created with the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States”, and “has just imposed a 50% tariff on whiskey. If this tariff is not immediately eliminated, the United States will soon impose a 200% tariff to all wines, champanes and alcoholic products from France and other countries represented by the EU. This will greatly benefit the wine and champagne sector in the United States. ”

The retaliation tariffs announced Wednesday by the community authorities are for a value of 26,000 million and are designed to attack the flotation line of the American traditional mode of life, as they affect symbols such as the Kentucky bubble, the Levi’s brand pants or Harley Davidson motorcycles.

If Trump’s last threat would be considerable escalation in the Transatlantic Commercial War unleashed from his arrival at the White House for a second mandate. The fears that its chaotic and aggressive economic measures are also affirmed to lead to a recession in the United States, as many analysts are already afraid.

Neither those fears nor the collapse of the markets, which on Monday signed their blackest day so far this year, seem to influence the mood of the president and his secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, who in statements to Fox News seemed this Thursday resigned to the worst perspectives.

Actually, the new EU rates involve resurrecting paralyzed reprisals in response to Trump’s first mandate. In 2018 and 2020, Trump surcharges affected products for a value of about 6.5 billion euros (at then prices).

In the second phase, Brussels, after consultation with the Member States and the affected parties, will foreseeably impose tariffs on new goods until the value of those created by Washington is equal to. In the European focus there are from appliances, cosmetics and leather items to agricultural products such as poultry, as well as nuts, dairy, oranges and sugar. The impact of new US tariffs on European products is estimated at more than 26,000 million euros, according to community executive data. This is equivalent to approximately 5% of the total exports of EU goods to the US, Brussels argues.

The decision to tax US liquors with 50% was received on Thursday with concern for their employer. “It is deeply disappointing and the efforts of rebuilding will severely undermine [tras el parón de la pandemia] The ties between both markets, ”said Chris Swonger, head of the Commercial Association Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (Discus).

The imposition in Washington of bulk to metal and aluminum additionally brought on the response of Canada, the primary affected by each measures. Ottawa introduced Wednesday that he would apply charges to the United States value $ 21,000 million (30,000 million Canadian {dollars}; 19,000 million euros). They had been deliberate to enter into power this Thursday and are divided between direct counter -consistent to the imports of metal and aluminum and charges to different merchandise, akin to computer systems, boilers or sports activities materials.