Trump threatens 200% tariff on alcohol from EU | EUROtoday

US President Donald Trump has threatened a 200% tariff on any wine or alcoholic drinks coming in to the US from the EU, if the bloc doesn’t take away its tariff on US whiskey.

It comes after the EU stated it will impose a levy on US-produced whiskey as a part of its counter-tariffs in response to US tariffs on all metal and aluminium imports.

Trump known as the EU’s measures “nasty” and known as the block “hostile and abusive” for taxing €26bn (£21.9bn, $28.3bn) value of American items.

He known as for the rapid elimination of the EU’s tariff on US whiskey, including that the EU was “formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States”.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump stated the tariff on EU alcohol imports can be “great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US”.

The newest menace marks a continued escalation of a commerce conflict which has rattled monetary markets amid issues over the impression on the economies and shoppers in lots of international locations world wide, together with the US.

On Wednesday, Trump moved ahead with a plan to widen US tariffs on metal and aluminium, imposing a blanket responsibility of 25% and ending exemptions that the US had beforehand granted for shipments from some international locations.

That adopted an order earlier this month that raised levies on Chinese imports into the US to a minimum of 20%.

Trump has additionally threatened tariffs – that are taxes utilized to items as they enter a rustic – on a spread of extra particular gadgets, together with copper, lumber and automobiles.

Leaders in Canada and Europe have known as the brand new taxes unjustified and struck again with their very own tariffs on a spread of US merchandise.