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The EU will hit the US with 25 per cent tariffs on a range of goods in response to its duties on aluminium and steel, but has exempted bourbon after heavy lobbying from France, Italy and Ireland, which are seeking to shield their alcohol industries from the escalating trade war.
As well as whiskey, after consultations with member states, wine and dairy products have also been removed from the proposal, according to a list of countermeasures obtained by the Financial Times.
Other products, including orange juice, poultry and soyabeans, will have tariffs of 10 per cent to 25 per cent imposed.
The tariffs will take effect between April 15 and December 1, depending on the product. Soyabeans and almonds have been delayed until December 1, after farmers objected to the former, used to feed animals.
US President Donald Trump had threatened a 200 per cent levy on European alcohol should bourbon be targeted.
EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, speaking before the list was sent to governments on Monday, said he had listened to their requests. As a result the bloc’s reaction would affect less than the initial €26bn worth of US imports targeted after Washington imposed 25 per cent levies on all imports of steel and aluminium.
“We are not in the business of tit-for-tat or penny for penny,” Šefčovič said.
EU governments are expected to approve the amended list on Wednesday.
Trump has since announced he will introduce additional 20 per cent levies on all European exports.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels had repeatedly offered the US a deal to eliminate all tariffs on industrial goods, particularly cars, adding Europe was “always ready for a good deal so we keep it on the table”.
Germany’s economy minister criticised the lobbying of other member states on behalf of their drinks industries, saying they should rally behind the commission, which leads on trade policy.
“The stock markets are already collapsing and the damage could become even greater,” Robert Habeck said before an EU trade ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. “It is therefore important . . . to act clearly and decisively and prudently, which means realising that we are in a strong position. America is in a position of weakness.”
“If every country is counted individually, and we have a problem here with red wine and there with whiskey and pistachios, then it will all come to nothing,” he added.
But the European drinks industry will be relieved if the change is confirmed. It is already facing a substantial hit to exports from Trump’s baseline tariffs amid a weak global market and trade issues with China.
France’s wine and spirits sector would have been the worst affected by the threatened tariffs, according to the country’s wine and spirits exporters association Fevs. It believes the levies will lead to a €1.6bn drop in exports from across the EU, with half of that in France, creating “huge impact” on employment and the economy.
“This tariff clash only creates losers, both in Europe and the US . . . Our American counterparts, with whom we have worked for decades, are also conveying this message to the American authorities,” said Fevs president Gabriel Picard.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni plans to travel to Washington “in the next few weeks” as part of EU efforts to persuade the US government to roll back 20 per cent tariffs, her foreign minister said on Monday.
Antonio Tajani said that while Rome was aiming for a “zero tariff-zero tariff” agreement between the US and the EU, as an intermediate step, he hoped Washington would reduce its so-called reciprocal tariffs on European goods to 10 per cent.
The US spirits industry has also lobbied the White House to exempt spirits globally from all tariffs, pointing out 86 per cent of US exports went to countries that had eliminated tariffs on American alcohol products.
“The US spirits sector has been the model of success for fair and reciprocal trade for decades,” Distilled Spirits Council president and chief executive Chris Swonger said last week.
In 2018, the EU imposed a 25 per cent retaliatory tariff on US whiskey, which caused exports to the bloc to plunge 20 per cent, from $552mn to $440mn between 2018 and 2021.
Since the tariffs were suspended, US whiskey exports to the EU surged nearly 60 per cent, from $439mn in 2021 to $699mn in 2024, according to the trade group.
Additional reporting by Amy Kazmin in Rome and Alice Hancock in Brussels
