Brussels eyes hitting €100B of US goods with tariffs

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is looking at hitting nearly €100 billion worth of U.S. exports in retaliation for Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs if negotiations with Washington fail, four EU diplomats and a national official told POLITICO. 

In the latest salvo in the ratcheting transatlantic trade war, the list of goods represents an objective put forward by the EU executive during a restricted meeting of the EU’s ambassadors last week, with the Commission expecting to hit “just below” €100 billion of U.S. goods, two diplomats said. Another diplomat quoted a figure of €95 billion, highlighting that the package is still in its early stages.

“The aim is to be prepared in case the negotiations with the U.S. do not bring tangible results,” another diplomat said. All were granted anonymity as they are not authorized to discuss the closed-door deliberations on the record.

Brussels is expected to share the list Thursday at the earliest, three diplomats said, which will then kick off a month-long consultation with countries and stakeholders. When the Commission last sought to consult with EU capitals for its retaliation against Trump’s earlier steel and aluminum tariffs, the list ended up being watered down, with bourbon whiskey being removed at the request of France, Italy and Ireland. 

The EU executive briefed the EU’s 27 ambassadors last week on a list of potential concessions in the talks, as well as a list of goods it would hit with tariffs should the Trump administration slap further tariffs on the bloc. Despite a 90-day pause in the tit-for-tat retaliation, Washington still imposes a 10 percent tariff on all EU goods, on top of levies on cars, steel and aluminum imports. Talks to remove those tariffs haven’t so far progressed.

It comes as Brussels estimates the broader impact of Trump’s trade war at about €549 billion of EU exports, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said Tuesday morning. 

The Commission’s top trade official, Sabine Weyand, is leading a delegation of high-level technical experts for talks on Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, D.C., an EU official said previously. This is the first encounter between Brussels and Washington since the Commission spelled out its retaliation playbook last week. 

Bloomberg first reported the figure. The European Commission declined to comment.

This story has been updated.