President Trump threatened to escalate a trade war with the European Union after the bloc announced 50 percent tariffs on U.S. whiskey and several other American products to kick in on April 1, in retaliation to a batch of U.S. tariffs that took effect this week.
“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200 percent tariff on all wines, Champagnes, and alcoholic products coming out of France and other E.U. represented countries,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s jab came a day after E.U. leaders announced that they would respond to the United States imposing 25 percent tariffs on steel, aluminum and related products.
The 27-nation bloc plans to react in two waves: First, with tariffs as high as 50 percent on U.S. products including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Kentucky bourbon, which will take effect on April 1; and second, a series of measures in mid-April that would target farm products and industrial goods that are important to Republican districts.
European leaders have made it clear that they would prefer not to enact the tariffs, and would like to negotiate with Mr. Trump.
“Tariffs are taxes,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said in a statement on Wednesday.
But with little progress toward a deal, E.U. leaders have decided to hit back in politically sensitive product categories, hoping to inflict enough pain that they would drive Americans to the negotiation table.
This is not the first time the spirits and alcohol industry has been caught in a trade war. Less extreme tariffs were placed on liquor and other alcohol during Mr. Trump’s first term, and the industry’s recovery from that hit has been long and grueling.
Industry executives have been lobbying in Washington, Brussels and other European capitals to be spared this time — and expressed alarm on Wednesday that they were once again caught in the crossfire.
“Reimposing these debilitating tariffs at a time when the spirits industry continues to face a slowdown” will “further curtail growth and negatively impact distillers and farmers in states across the country,” Chris Swonger, the chief executive of the Washington-based Distilled Spirits Council, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump wrote in his social media post that the tariffs “will be great for the wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
Champagne, technically, is only produced in a specific region in France.
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, did not have an immediate comment on Mr. Trump’s post.
But Olof Gill, a spokesman for the commission, said that bloc’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, had reached out to his American counterparts after the E.U.’s announcements Wednesday and that calls were “being prepared.”
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