Warning comes after EU announced retaliatory tariffs on $28bn of US goods in response to US levies on steel, aluminium.
United States President Donald Trump has warned he will impose tariffs of 200 percent on wine, champagne and other alcoholic products from European Union countries if the bloc goes ahead with a planned tariff on US whiskey.
The EU announced tariffs on $28bn in US goods, including a 50 percent levy on US bourbon whiskey, on Thursday in retaliation after US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports came into effect the previous day.
“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in response to the EU announcement.
He singled out the 50 percent levy on US whiskey as “nasty”, describing the EU as “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World”, which had been formed with “the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States”.
France swiftly responded that it would fight back against any tariffs on alcohol.
“It is important for us Europeans to show who we are and that we will not yield to these kinds of threats,” said French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in an address on Thursday at a trade forum.
French Foreign Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said on X that the US was escalating a trade war that Trump “chose to start” and that France was “determined to retaliate”.
Olof Gill, the European Commission spokesperson in charge of trade issues, urged the US to revoke its duties on steel and aluminium.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU commissioner for trade, held an introductory call with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in which he expressed concern over US tariffs and their negative economic impact on both sides.
‘Fed up’
If the US were to impose a 200 percent tariff on alcohol imports from the EU, a previously un-tariffed $15 bottle of Italian prosecco could possibly increase in price to $45. Similarly, Europe’s response to Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs means that the cost of a $30 bottle of bourbon in Paris could increase to $45.
Trump’s latest tariff threats suggested that even companies that have publicly stood by him – such as French luxury goods company LVMH, whose CEO attended his inauguration – could be collateral damage.
Their imposition raises questions about whether the wider business community might be willing to openly challenge a series of trade wars that have hurt the stock market and scared consumers.
Electric carmaker Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, one of the President’s biggest allies, wrote to US trade representative Jamieson Greer, urging the US administration to “consider the downstream impacts of certain proposed actions taken to address unfair trade practices”.
Nicolas Ozanam, the director general of the federation representing French wine and spirit exporters, known by the acronym FEVS, said exporters were “fed up with being systematically sacrificed for issues unrelated to our own”.
In the US, Distilled Spirits Council head Chris Swonger called the EU’s plans “deeply disappointing”, signalling that they would hit at a time when the industry was facing a “slowdown” on its home market.
Trump’s trade wars have also taken aim at Canada, Mexico and China on the pretext that they are not doing enough to curtail fentanyl smuggling or illegal immigration into the United States.
He has taken aim at specific commodities, including steel, aluminium and copper.
Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries that they could trigger a recession have roiled financial markets.
Francois Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of France’s central bank, said that the Trump administration’s actions would end up inflicting more damage on the US economy.
“It’s firstly a tragedy for the American economy,” he said.