BRUSSELS: The European Commission (EC) has proposed introducing retaliatory tariffs of 25% on industrial goods from the United States from ...
BRUSSELS: The European Commission (EC) has proposed introducing retaliatory tariffs of 25% on industrial goods from the United States from April 16, Reuters reported citing a confidential EC document sent to EU member states for approval.
The agency claims that the EC has removed whiskey from the list of goods subject to import duties.
The EC intended to impose a 50% duty on whiskey, to which US President Donald Trump threatened a 200% tariff on all European alcohol, which would hit the agricultural sector of Italy, France and other southern EU countries especially hard.
As the agency wrote, the EC proposes to introduce tariffs in three stages: the first package - from April 16, the second one - from May 16, the third one - from December 1.
Earlier, the European Commissioner for Trade Policy and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic said at a press conference following the EU ministerial meeting in Luxembourg that the EU Council should approve the measures proposed by the European Commission on April 9.
As Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said earlier, the European Commission had tapped the old "frozen" list in its pending measures, meaning the list of goods from the 2018 EU-US trade dispute between the first administration of US President Donald Trump and the European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker. Then the tariffs were quickly frozen, but the list remained. Thus, the list will include meat, grains, wine, wood, clothing, including jeans, motorcycles, as well as vacuum cleaners, chewing gum, dental floss, toilet paper, and diamonds.
It is expected that that the first package of EU tariffs will affect American exports worth 4.5 billion euros, the second one - 18 billion euros.
-News Feed
COMMENTS