Eu readers hit list of U.S goods it will punish if tariffs go ahead
The European BRUSSELS — Union says it’s ready to retaliate against the U.S. over President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum with counter— measures against iconic U.S. products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Levi’s jeans and bourbon.
The EU threat and Trump’s insistence that the tariffs will go ahead escalate the risk of a trade war, in which coun- tries try to punish each other by increasing taxes on traded goods. In the end, that tends to hurt all sides as exporting producers suffer but so do consumers, who face higher costs, experts say.
There was some hope that free-trade proponents in the White House, like eco- nomic adviser Gary Cohn, would dissuade Trump from going ahead with the tariffs. But Cohn’s resignation Tuesday dealt a blow to that expectation.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said Wednesday that the EU is circulating among member states a list of U.S. goods to target with tariffs so that it can respond as quickly as possible.
The list so far includes U.S. steel and agricultural products, as well as other products like bourbon, peanut butter, cranberries and orange juice.
She did not say what level of tariffs the EU would set, leaving it unclear what the economic impact would be.
“This is basically a stu- pid process, the fact that we have to do this. But we have to do it,” EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had said Friday. “We can also do stupid.”
The EU considers itself to be caught in the crossfire of this particular trade dis
pute, in which Trump has mainly singled out China for being unfair in its commer- cial deals.
Trump last week said his government would levy penalties of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports, but did not say whether traditional allies like the EU and Canada would be exempt. On Wednesday, Cabinet mem- bers suggested Canada and Mexico might escape and that the announcement was due at the end of this week.
Once Trump officially announces the tariffs, they would start almost immediately, experts say.
So the EU has moved ahead with preparations for the worst.
Malmstroem said that the EU, the world’s biggest trading bloc, rejects Trump’s reasoning that the tariffs are backed by the interna- tional legal right to protect national security.
“We cannot see how the European Union, friends and allies in NATO, can be a
threat to international secu- rity in the U.S.,” Malmstroem told reporters. “From what we understand, the moti- vation of the U.S. is an eco- nomic safeguard measure in disguise, not a national security measure.”