The European Union that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, reconsider the 30% tariff to European products from August 1. But while the European Commissioner of Commerce, Maros Sefcovic, already has the endorsement of the Member States to continue negotiating, the EU is preparing for the worst. Brussels presented on Monday to the Foreign and Commerce ministers a second package of countermeasures for 72,000 million euros in case the negotiations fail, which proposes taxes that could become reciprocal for the products included in a list of 202 pages to which the country has had access. This relationship points to key sectors for US exports such as the aeronautical and car industry, agri -food and chemicals.
“The key categories of products are aircraft, cars and spare parts for cars, machinery products, chemical and plastic products, medical devices and equipment, electrical equipment and other industrial and agricultural products,” summarizes the text of Brussels, which specifies that these imports have been chosen according to three criteria. The first is the “need to rebalance” commercial conditions “in the light of US tariffs that affect EU exports to the United States.” The other two are the availability of “alternative supply sources” and the products in which the “risk of relocation is high.”
The cast of American imports that must pay a surcharge even without specifying but that could even be reciprocal, if the Trump administration does not back down, it is declined in two major chapters, both keys. To begin with, the relative to the agri -food industry. That list includes fruits, vegetables, prepared foods, seeds, tobacco, coffee, fish, manufactured products of animal origin such as leather and even live animals, especially farm, such as birds and sheep. Also exotic animals, such as parrots, and even proposes to tax the export of whales, dolphins and camels.
That chapter of goods collects an emblematic: whiskey (bourbon), wine, importation of vines and spirits. The Bourbon was included and then it was ruled out, by pressures of Italy and France -Trump had threatened to tax the European wine with a rate of 50% – that the twenty -seven proposed to submit to taxes of 25%worth about 20,000 million euros, a figure similar to that imposed by the US to the European products of steel and aluminum, now subjected to a 50%tariff.
Brussels suspended the application of that first list until August 1 to give the negotiations with Washington. In the second relationship to which this newspaper has had access, the Bourbon is finally included.
That first suspended package of tax products collected the designed tariffs, unleashed by Trump during his first mandate, with climbs in 2018 and 2020 and was designed to press Washington. Hence Brussels chose – and be raising again – among others, products that have their origin in states such as Alabama, Georgia, Virginia or Louisiana, who clearly voted for Republicans in the last elections, and also agricultural products, a sector that has a great impact of political mobilization on the Republican electorate.
Industry
The second chapter of the Products list of the Commission General Directorate refers to the American industry sector. To begin with, the airplanes, which hits the American aeronautical giant, Boeing, but also other sectors of new key to the Trump administration and its electorate; The car. The document includes not only tariffs on the importation of vehicles, but of engines and their replacement pieces. Also of machinery and industrial, agricultural and construction parts such as cranes, tractors, and forest vehicles.
and chemicals; The importation of industrial pieces of all kinds, oven and other appliances, watches, glass, paper, including hygienic and kitchen, beauty products, medical equipment and construction materials such as stone and marble are also included.
The document, dated Monday, also raises some exceptions related to products from the United States for which it is difficult to find an alternative. For example, imports of military material and crude oil.
The list of American products proposed by the commission to impose taxes must be approved by the Member States before being applied. However, that step is practically taken for granted, since only a inverse qualified majority could revoke it. That majority would require that they vote against the proposal of the commission 55% of states that represent at least 65% of the population of the twenty -seven, a quorum difficult to reach.
If that second replica is finally approved, it would be added to which it is suspended, which is equivalent to about 20,000 million. That is, the EU response, for the moment, would be somewhat greater than 90,000 million. That would affect just under a third of European imports from the United States, which implies that the replica of the twenty -seven would be very far from the blow of Washington, which reaches 70% of EU’s exports to the other side of the Atlantic.
The EU and the US are the world’s largest commercial partners, with a value of 1.6 billion euros registered in 2023. Bilateral investment flows between them exceed 5 billion euros, according to data from the European Commission.
