The EU gets into tariffs on Trump and warns from a trade war

In Brussels it was only after 06:00 on Wednesday. But it was a north in Washington when 25% of President Donald Trump tariffs and aluminum came into force on major US trading partners.

It took less than 10 minutes to the European Union.

“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and even worse for consumers,” said the President of the European Commission Ursul von der Leyen.

Initial EU counteraction measures will come into force on US products on 1 April, starting from jeans and motorcycles to peanut butter and bourbonJust as they were with the first tariffs of the Trump administration in 2018 and 2020.

But in mid -April there will be more. Depending on the two -week advice with the stakeholders, a number of textiles, household appliances, food and agricultural products can be included.

The list of items nearly 100 pages is distributed, which presents meat, dairy products, fruits, wine and alcohol, seat in the toilet, wood, coat, swimwear, night joints, shoes, chandeliers and lawn mowers.

For consumers, higher prices are on European supermarkets, especially for American products. But for businesses and some industries, especially steel, there is a real danger.

The head of the German Federation who wholesale, foreign trade and service, Dirk Yandura, warned that the Germans may have to delve into their pockets to pay for American products in supermarkets.

Orange juice, bourbon and peanuts were the most likely foods. “The margin in trade is so low that it cannot absorb the company,” he said.

In total, the EU will target 26 billion euros (22 billion pounds) US exports.

“We are not going to enter the hypothetics in addition to saying that we are carefully preparing for all these results,” EU secretary Olaf Gill said.

Antonio Costa, President of the EU Council, called on the United States to de -escalate, although there were few signs on Wednesday when Trump promised to return to the EU counter -attack.

“We have been abusing us for a long time, and we are no longer abused,” he said.

Austria also was concerned with escalation.

“The United States is the second most important export market for Austrian products after Germany – and the most important for Germany,” said Christoph Neymeier, who is the head of the Austrian Federation. It was “important for Europe to act together and decisively,” he added.

One EU official noted that foods such as soy and orange juice can be easily obtained from Brazil or Argentina, so consumers will not beat too much.

And it was believed that some of the US exports were also from the US states under national control: soy of Louisiana or meat from Nebraska and Kansas.

A relatively large amount of US exports goes to the EU via the Rotterdam Dutch port or Antwerp to Belgium.

Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Dirk Beliaarts said no one used the “war of tariffs”, but he hoped that it would not hit his country’s economy too much: “It affects companies and consumers – especially consumers in the US.”

One area that will be particularly affected by both sides of the Atlantic is in the drink sector.

Pauline Bastidon of Spirits Europe said the manufacturers in the EU and the United States were united, with risks facing European companies that made perfumes in the US and US companies that were heavily invested in Europe.

Chris Schongger, from the US distilled spirits, said that three years after the suspension of 25% of US whiskey tariffs, American alcohols “worked a lot to return the firm foundation on our largest export market.”

Repeated tariffs since April 1 was “deeply disappointed” and He urged to return to the tariffs for “zero for zero”.

For cognac manufacturers in France, 25% of the US import tax in the United States is also a major problem as most of their products are designed to export either to the US or China.

French manufacturers have already suffered from Chinese measures who hit large cognac taxes.

“The morale is reduced on the dump,” said Bastien Brusafer of the General Winegrowers France.

Thousands of jobs are threatened only in the Charente region, he says, “Cognac is a product made for export.”

There was also a terrible warning from the head of the European Steel Association Henry Adam.

“President Trump’s policy in America” ​​threatens to become the last nail in the coffin of the European metallurgical industry, “he warned.

Trump’s initial tariffs on European steel in 2018, when the EU’s exports to the United States falls more than a million tons, and every three tons of steel that did not enter the United States instead entered two -thirds.

“These new measures imposed by Trump are broader, so the impact of tariffs on the US is likely to be much greater.”