EU targets Boeing, US cars and bourbon with €72bn list

The European Union has finalised a second list of countermeasures to target US goods worth €72 billion ($84 billion), including Boeing aircraft, automobiles and bourbon if it decides to retaliate as transatlantic trade tensions intensify.

The additional duties would also be slapped on machinery products, chemicals and plastics, medical devices, electrical equipment, wines and other agricultural goods, according to a 206-page list prepared by the European Commission and seen by Bloomberg News.

The list, initially hitting American goods totaling €95 billion, was cut down after consultations with companies and member states. Countries must give their approval before the list’s adoption. The suite of measures represents the EU’s response to President Donald Trump’s earlier so-called reciprocal tariff of 20% hitting most goods and the additional levies on cars and car parts of 25%. The universal rate was later temporarily lowered to 10% to allow negotiations to take place.

European Commission representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday morning.

The list, which was reported earlier by Politico, does not include a tariff rate for the goods.

Over the weekend, Trump said he would raise EU tariffs to 30% on August 1, which the bloc’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic called “effectively prohibitive” to transatlantic trade. EU trade ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss next steps. Sefcovic was planning to speak with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick late Monday to continue negotiations that the EU insists must be mutually beneficial to both sides.

Over the weekend, the EU announced it was set to extend a suspension of tariffs on a first list of €21 billion of US products in response to additional steel and aluminium tariffs from Trump.

The EU’s new list of targeted US products includes more than €65 billion of industrial goods, including mostly aircraft (nearly €11 billion), machinery (more than €9.4 billion) and cars (nearly €8 billion). More than €6 billion of US goods hit are agrifood products, mostly fruits and vegetables (nearly €2 billion) and alcoholic drinks (€1.2 billion).

The broad package also includes precision equipment and instruments (nearly €5 billion), toys and hobby equipment (more than €500 million), sports guns (nearly €300 million) or musical instruments (around €200 million).

Some of the criteria to choose the goods were the availability of alternative sources of supply and products where the risk of relocation is high, according to the document. Imported military products will not be subject to the duties.

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