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.”
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