The EU has finalized a second list of countermeasures to target US goods worth 72 billion euros (US$84.12 billion), including Boeing Co aircraft, automobiles and bourbon if it decides to retaliate as transatlantic trade tensions intensify.
The additional duties would also be slapped on machinery products, chemicals and plastics, medical devices, electrical equipment, wines and other agricultural goods, according to a 206-page list prepared by the European Commission and seen by Bloomberg News.
The list, initially hitting US goods totaling 95 billion euros, was cut down after consultations with companies and member states. Countries must give their approval before the list’s adoption.
Photo: AFP
The suite of measures represents the EU’s response to US President Donald Trump’s earlier “reciprocal” tariff of 20 percent hitting most goods and the additional levies on cars and auto parts of 25 percent. The universal rate was later temporarily lowered to 10 percent to allow for negotiations.
The list, which was reported earlier by Politico, does not include a tariff rate for the goods.
Over the weekend, Trump said he would raise EU tariffs to 30 percent on Aug. 1, which EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic called “effectively prohibitive” to transatlantic trade.
EU trade ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss next steps. Sefcovic was to speak with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick late on Monday to continue negotiations that the EU said must be mutually beneficial to both sides.
Over the weekend, the EU announced it was set to extend a suspension of tariffs on a first list of 21 billion euros of US products in response to additional steel and aluminum tariffs from Trump.
Separately, the US government withdrew from a longstanding trade agreement with Mexico governing tomato imports and would push forward with a new tariff of just more than 17 percent, the US Department of Commerce announced on Monday.
The move came just days after Trump announced plans to impose a 30 percent tariff, starting on Aug. 1, on many Mexican products that do not fall under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement he negotiated in his first term.
“Mexico remains one of our greatest allies, but for far too long our farmers have been crushed by unfair trade practices that undercut pricing on produce like tomatoes. That ends today,” Lutnick said in a statement. “This rule change is in line with President Trump’s trade policies and approach with Mexico.”
A Mexican government statement posted on social media sharply disagreed with Lutnick, describing the US levy as politicized and “unfair.”
The joint statement from Mexico’s agriculture and economy ministries added that market share won by Mexican tomato farmers is due to “the quality of the product, and not any unfair practice.”
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS