US president Trump threatened to levy a 200% tariff on imports of European wines and Champagne, unless the EU backs down on plans to levy fresh tariffs on American whiskies.
Tensions have risen this week after the US imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. A promise of retaliatory measures worth €26bn quickly emerged from the European Commission in Brussels.
It said suspended tariffs on US goods will be reimposed and applied in full, ‘from boats to bourbon [whiskies] to motorbikes’, as of 1 April. Other products, not yet finalised, will also be hit.
Trump said today (13 March) on his Truth Social platform that if the ‘nasty’ levies on whiskies aren’t withdrawn immediately, the US would ‘shortly place a 200% tariff on all wines, Champagnes and alcoholic products coming out of France and other EU-represented countries’.
He again claimed the European Union was created ‘for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the US’.
European wine producers’ worst fears realised?
Trump’s ‘200%’ threat plays into European wine industry fears of an escalating trade war between Brussels and Washington.
Many will remember tariffs during the first Trump administration, although a 200% tariff would be a significant escalation.
The US is the biggest market for French wine and spirits exports, with shipments valued at €3.8bn in 2024, according to France’s wine and spirits export federation (FEVS).
Prior to Trump’s comments, FEVS said it understood that the European Commission must respond to aluminium and steel levies but it was concerned to see that US wines and spirits could be targeted.
Its president, Gabriel Picard, said this won’t have the desired effect and would likely provoke a US reaction, potentially ‘bringing the European wine and spirits industry to its knees’.
The FEVS urged the Commission and US officials to engage in bilateral dialogue. It also said extra tariffs on wine and spirits would damage businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the US, trade groups have said extra tariffs on European wines would hit consumer choice and increase prices.
Trump argued on Truth Social that a 200% levy on European wines would be ‘great for the wine and Champagne businesses in the US’.
European wine trade body Comité européen des entreprises vins (CEEV) said yesterday that it was ‘dismayed’ to see US wines on a list of possible retaliatory targets published by the European Commission. ‘Wine should not be used as leverage in unrelated trade disputes,’ it said.
European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen said yesterday, ‘Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and worse for consumers.’ Still, she added, ‘The countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate.’
