Once again, Donald Trump Back to threaten the EU in an attempt to move markets. If Brussels does not hurry to erase the duty of 50% on the American whiskey, Washington will double the mail, imposing a tax of 200% on wines, champagne and alcohol coming from Europe.
On Truth Social, his personal resonance case, the president frontally attacked the European Union, stamping it as a giant of the bureaucracy obsessed with duties and unbridled taxation. For Trump our continent would be nothing more than an economic parasite that sucks resources to the United States, and this time swears to make a salty account pay.
The immediate reaction of France
France replied almost immediately. The Minister of Foreign Commerce, Laurent Saint-Martin, clarified on X that Paris has no intention of staying to look at while Trump plays with duties as if they were poker fiches. “France remains determined to respond, together with the European Commission and our partners,” said the minister. Then accused the United States of deliberately having I turned on the fuse of an economic war And he promised that the consequences will not be expected.
Brussels ready for the counter -move
The European Union has equipped itself for any eventuality and has no intention of being seized. Olof Gill, a spokesman for the European Commission, has assured that the community leaders have been working on work for some time response strategies Washington tariff intemperances. The official mantra remains the dialogue but, under the surface, Europe is preparing to play its game.
The question of steel and aluminum is only a piece of a larger mosaic, where global overproduction and economic power games intertwine with international politics.
The European wine market in the United States
The United States are the soil of conquest for European wine producers, a market that is worth billions. In 2023, the Americans consumed over 30 million hectoliters of wine, remaining the most thirsty on the planet, even if with a slight slowdown compared to previous years, probably thanks to Covid. Last year, the value of wine imports exceeded 6 billion eurosbut with an 11%drop compared to 2022. France remains the undisputed queen of the market, with a slice greater than 37%, while Italy follows with over 30%.
Turning to bubbles, Italy pushes strongly on volumes with over 122 million liters shipped to the USA in 2024, a jump of 13.7% compared to the year before. But when it comes to value, France defines the most valuable bottle: 888 million dollars against 680 million Italians. A tariff arm wrestling with the United States could transform this flourishing trade into a Russian roulette for European producers. France and Italyas the load -bearing columns of the market, risk seeing each other Close the door in the face Just as the Americans begin to look elsewhere to fill their glasses.
European measures against American restrictions
To protect the European market, the Commission dusted off the artillery heavy, reintroducing countermeasures that had been on pause. In the sight they end up Products symbol of Made in the USA: bourbon, motorcycles and boats. But the narrow does not stop there. New rates will fall on a wide range of industrial and agricultural goods, from steel to aluminum, passing through leather, appliances and wooden products.
Ursula von der Leyen, moreover, it was clear: “While the United States impose duties for 28 billion dollars, we replicate with measures worth 26 billion euros”, announced the president of the European Commission. Brussels would prefer to avoid transforming this story into a commercial war without neighborhood, but it is not willing to let massacre its industries from the protectionist shots of the White House. Moreover, those who sow rates, collect retaliation.
