President Donald Trump said Thursday he would impose a 200% tariff on all wines, champagnes and alcohol products imported to the U.S. from European countries—specifically singling out wine from France—after the European Union on Tuesday announced new tariffs set to take effect in April in retaliation for Trump’s global metal tariffs that started Wednesday.
President Donald Trump meets with Ireland's Prime Minister Michael Martin in the Oval Office at the ... [+]
Trump said he would tax alcohol products from the EU unless it removes the 50% tax on imported American whiskey that’s part of the retaliatory tariffs set to take effect April 1.
Calling the European Union “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the world,” Trump said Thursday on Truth Social he would “shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” calling the whiskey tax “nasty” and predicting a tax on alcohol imports from the EU “will be great for the Wine and Champagne business in the U.S.”
The EU announced the tariffs in response to Trump’s 25% tax on steel and aluminum imports from U.S. trading partners that took effect Wednesday.
The EU’s tariffs are a reinstatement of taxes it charged on U.S. imports during Trump’s first term that target goods from Republican-held states, such as soybean from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana and beef and poultry from Kansas and Nebraska.
This is a developing story and will be updated.