Donald Trump has shared a scathing message to the ‘entire world’ as his trade war reaches boiling point.
It’s not to do with his recent warnings to Russia’s Putin or heated exchange with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy. Instead, it’s the swathe of major tariff increases that’s led to his latest brutal message.
Having threatened to raise the metals tariff to 50 percent for Canadian imports before backing off due to its retaliation, he’s still put a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico.
Trump also raised a tariff on all Chinese goods as well as the initial tariff of 25 percent on steel and aluminium from all countries.
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Now, in quite the threat, the US president is looking at EU alcohol.
Yesterday (13 March), Trump threatened he would put a 200 percent tariff on ‘wines, champagnes, and alcoholic products’ from the European Union.
This came as a response to a retaliatory 50 percent import duty on US whiskey. So, with tension escalating between the longtime trading partners, he hit out at his close ally.
“The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social.
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“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. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
And then, later yesterday morning, he seemed to send a message to the rest of the world as he posted: “The US doesn’t have Free Trade. We have ‘Stupid Trade’. The Entire World is RIPPING US OFF!!!”
A whopping 200 percent tariff on alcohol from EU would be quite the hit, but potentially also an interesting one considering the state’s preferences.
Alcohol is quite a hefty part of the US’ agricultural imports and United Nations trade data found that from the EU in particularly, French wines and spirits and Italian wines took the lead in US imports in 2023.
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A spokesperson told the BBC: “The European Union regrets and is very disappointed by this latest statement by the US president, we believe that these types of tariffs are unjustified, unfair and counterproductive.”
They added that they will be speaking to US officials today.
Topics: Alcohol, US News, Donald Trump
Jess Battison