EU eyes targeting 100bn euros of US goods with tariffs

BRUSSELS: The EU is preparing to hit US goods worth nearly 100 billion euros ($113 billion) with tariffs in retaliation for US President Donald Trump’s sweeping levies if talks fail, European diplomats told AFP on Wednesday.

Trump has slapped a series of higher tariffs on Europe since March and in his biggest move, he imposed a 20-per cent tariff on a majority of EU goods last month -- before announcing a 90-day pause that is due to expire in July. There is currently a “baseline” levy of 10 per cent on goods from the 27-country EU and other nations around the world.

The European Union hopes to reach a deal with the United States to avoid an all-out trade war, but wants to be prepared to strike back if Trump’s tariffs kick in again.

The European Commission, which is in charge of EU trade policy, told member states last week that it would target nearly 100 billion euros worth of US goods in response to the 20-per cent tariff if negotiations fail to yield an agreement, two EU diplomats said. The preliminary list of products is expected to be made public on Thursday.

EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic told the European Parliament this week that 70 per cent of the bloc’s total exports face levies at rates between 10 and 25 per cent. He warned that with US trade probes underway into a raft of sectors, from pharmaceuticals to lumber, “around 549 billion euros of EU exports to the US, ie 97 per cent of the total” could eventually face tariffs.

The EU diplomats did not say which US products would be targeted, but the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday reported Boeing aircraft would be in the firing line. Only a day earlier, France’s Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury told AFP that Europe should impose tariffs on imports of the US company’s aircraft should talks fail.

If negotiations “do not result in a positive outcome, I imagine that there will be -- and that’s what we wish -- reciprocal tariffs on airplanes to force a higher level of negotiation”, Faury said.The commission and Boeing refused to comment on the FT report.