The European Commission (EC) has published a list of US products that could face retaliatory tariffs from the 1st of April after the Donald Trump administration imposed 25% global duties on steel and aluminium on Wednesday, the 12th of March, reports Politico.
The 99-page list is dominated by meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables and alcoholic beverages.
It also includes chewing gum, communion wafers, nicotine vapes and plasters, as well as women’s negligees.
Other items seem to be an attack on the American way of life, with outdoor clothing, tents, work tools and household appliances among the list. The list also includes heavy-duty items such as farm machinery, snow blowers and motorcycles.
Such a list is usually drawn up in order to cause economic pain in the states of Republican lawmakers who might influence Trump to abandon the trade war. Trade bureaucrats usually admit, if pressed, that compiling them is the nicest part of their job.
The Commission announced on Wednesday a two-stage retaliatory measure covering 26 billion euros of EU exports, well beyond the trade conflict that erupted during Trump’s first term.
If no agreement is reached through negotiations, it will reimpose these measures from the 1st of April in response to the eight billion euros of tariffs imposed by the US, including on iconic American products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon and jeans.
And from mid-April, it will impose further retaliatory measures on new US tariffs of 18 billion euros, subject to approval by EU Member States.
The EU executive has launched a survey to seek the views of those affected by the US tariffs and has set a deadline to submit proposals until the 26th of March.
On Monday, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said that while the EU’s “door is open”, the US does not seem interested in a deal to avoid a tariff war.