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 could 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) price of American items.
He known as for the speedy removing of the EU’s tariff on US whiskey, including that the EU was “fashioned for the only real goal of profiting from the USA”.
Writing on Fact Social, Trump stated the tariff on EU alcohol imports could be “nice for the Wine and Champagne companies within the US”.
The newest risk marks a continued escalation of a commerce conflict which has rattled monetary markets amid considerations over the impression on the economies and customers in lots of nations all over the world, together with the US.
On Wednesday, Trump moved ahead with a plan to widen US tariffs on metal and aluminium, imposing a blanket obligation of 25% and ending exemptions that the US had beforehand granted for shipments from some nations.
That adopted an order earlier this month that raised levies on Chinese language imports into the US to no less than 20%.
Trump has additionally threatened tariffs – that are taxes utilized to items as they enter a rustic – on a variety of extra particular objects, together with copper, lumber and vehicles.
Leaders in Canada and Europe have known as the brand new taxes unjustified and struck again with their very own tariffs on a variety of US merchandise.