President Trump escalated his trade war with the European Union on Thursday, threatening 200 percent tariffs on European wine and champagne that deepened anxiety among businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, in which he called the E.U. “hostile and abusive,” came a day after the bloc’s leaders unveiled plans to retaliate against a batch of U.S. tariffs that took effect this week by imposing 50 percent tariffs on imports of U.S. whiskey and several other American products.
“If this tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200 percent tariff on all wines, Champagnes, and alcoholic products coming out of France and other E.U. represented countries,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Thursday.
The E.U.’s tariff plan came in response to a set of U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum, and other related products that took hold on Wednesday.
The 27-nation bloc explained that it would react to America’s steel and aluminum tariffs in two waves: First, with tariffs as high as 50 percent on U.S. products including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Kentucky bourbon, which will take effect on April 1; and second, a series of measures in mid-April that would target farm products and industrial goods that are important to Republican districts.
European leaders have made it clear that they would prefer not to enact those measures, and would like to come to an agreement with Mr. Trump instead.
“Tariffs are taxes,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said in a statement on Wednesday. But with little progress toward a deal, E.U. leaders had decided to hit back in politically sensitive product categories, hoping to inflict enough pain to drive Americans to the negotiation table.
European officials had anticipated that Washington might react, and some vowed on Thursday not to cave under that pressure.
“We will not give in to threats,” Laurent Saint-Martin, France’s foreign trade minister, said in a post on X. Mr. Trump “is escalating the trade war he chose to unleash,” he added.
The European Commission, which most directly drives trade policy for the economies in the bloc, did not have an immediate comment on Mr. Trump’s post.
But Olof Gill, a spokesman for the commission, said that the trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic had reached out to his American counterparts after the E.U.’s announcements on Wednesday. Calls were “being prepared,” he said.
This is not the first time the spirits and alcohol industry has been caught in a trans-Atlantic trade war. Less extreme tariffs were placed on liquor and other alcohol during Mr. Trump’s first term, and the industry’s recovery from that hit has been long and grueling.
Back then, the president threatened champagne with tariffs, but did not follow through.
While it is not clear how much it mattered in that case, Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and head of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury empire, is a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s. He attended the president’s recent inauguration.
Mr. Arnault’s company is home to brands including Dom Pérignon, Krug and Veuve Cliquot.
This time around, a range of alcohol industry executives have been lobbying in Washington, Brussels and other European capitals to be spared — and have expressed alarm that they are once again caught in the crossfire.
Ulrich Adam, director general of the trade group spiritsEurope, called Mr. Trump’s tariff threat on European alcohol a “shocker.” The group aims “to get spirits out of the middle of these unrelated disputes,” he added.
There seems to be little hope of an immediate reprieve. Mr. Trump stressed that the tariffs “will be great for the wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
Champagne, technically, is produced only in a specific region in France. About 16 percent of its total exports go to the United States, based on industry data from 2023, making America the largest importer of the sparkling wine.
This is the second time this week that Mr. Trump has threatened to rapidly escalate a trade war against a close ally.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump threatened to double the tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum after the province of Ontario responded to his previous tariffs by putting a surcharge on electricity it exported to the United States.
Within hours, Ontario had suspended its surcharge, and Mr. Trump also walked back his threats. On Wednesday, he proceeded to tax Canadian steel and aluminum at the same 25 percent rate as other countries.
Governments have varied their responses to Mr. Trump’s tariff threats.
China, the European Union and Canada have quickly answered Mr. Trump’s tariffs with levies of their own, encouraged by their domestic political constituencies to fight back or emboldened by leverage based on the size of their economies.
But governments in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Japan and Mexico have chosen not to retaliate, at least for now, as they seek a deal with Mr. Trump.
Liz Alderman contributed reporting from Paris.
