March 3 (UPI) — The European Union has threatened to impose tariffs on American-made products in retaliation for President Donald Trump‘s proposed taxes on U.S. steel and aluminum imports.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker specifically identified taxes on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon whiskey and Levi Strauss jeans as “counter measures,” an EU spokesperson told CNN.
Trump announced Thursday that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports to the U.S.
U.S. Department of Commerce Wilbur Ross recommended implementing tariffs last month based on a 262-page investigative report, finding that mounting steel and aluminum imports, particularly from China, were a threat to national security.
Juncker doesn’t buy that rationale.
He said in a release that Trump’s proposed tariffs are primarily “blatant intervention to protect U.S. Domestic industry,” and “any national security justification appears very weak.”
“The US Secretary of Defense has stated publicly that US military requirements represent no more than 3 percent of US production and that the Department of Defense is able to acquire the steel and aluminum it needs for U.S. national defense requirements,” the EU release stated. “We will not sit idly while our industry is hit with unfair measures that put thousands of European jobs at risk … I had the occasion to say that the EU would react adequately and that’s what we will do. The EU will react firmly and commensurately to defend our interests.”
Still, there are concerns about sparking a trade war.
“The potential for escalation is real, as we have seen from the initial responses of others,” said World Trade Organization director general Roberto Azevêdo. “A trade war is in no one’s interests. The WTO will be watching the situation very closely.”
Trump, though, doesn’t appear to be backing down.
“When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,” Trump tweeted early Friday. “Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don’t trade anymore – we win big. It’s easy!”
