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US President Donald Trump has threatened a 200% tariff on any wine or alcoholic drinks coming in to the US from the EU, if the bloc does not remove its tariff on US whiskey.
It comes after the EU said it would impose a levy on US-produced whiskey as part of its counter-tariffs in response to US tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports.
Trump called the EU’s measures “nasty” and called the block “hostile and abusive” for taxing €26bn (£21.9bn, $28.3bn) worth of American goods.
He called for the immediate removal of the EU’s tariff on US whiskey, adding that the EU was “formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States”.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the tariff on EU alcohol imports would be “great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US”.
The latest threat marks a continued escalation of a trade war which has rattled financial markets amid concerns over the impact on the economies and consumers in many countries around the world, including the US.
On Wednesday, Trump moved forward with a plan to widen US tariffs on steel and aluminium, imposing a blanket duty of 25% and ending exemptions that the US had previously granted for shipments from some countries.
That followed an order earlier this month that raised levies on Chinese imports into the US to at least 20%.
Trump has also threatened tariffs – which are taxes applied to goods as they enter a country – on a range of more specific items, including copper, lumber and cars.
Leaders in Canada and Europe have called the new taxes unjustified and struck back with their own tariffs on a range of US products.
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