The European Union has gone ahead with retaliatory duties against USD 2.8bn worth of US-made product
Tariffs have been imposed on products such as bourbon whiskey, motorcycles, Levi's jeans and orange juice. Representation pic
The European Union slapped revenge tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and motorcycles yesterday in its opening salvo in a trade war with President Donald Trump. The tariffs will further fuel jitters on world stock markets that are already alarmed by trade tensions between the United States and China.
Customs agents across the Europe's colossal market of 500 million people will now impose the duty, hiking prices on US-made products in supermarkets and across factory floors. Brussels imposed the raft of duties on US products worth $3.3 billion in a tit-for-tat response to Trump's decision to slap stiff tariffs on European steel and aluminium exports.
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Jean-Claude Juncker
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said this week that the 28-nation bloc was "left with no other choice" but to impose tariffs of its own after the "unilateral and unjustified decision of the US."
Together with US tariffs against Mexico and Canada, the trade battles have raised the spectre of a global trade war, spooking financial markets that fear major consequences to the global economy. "We have a trade war — and it's an escalating trade war," SEB chief economist Robert Bergqvist said in an interview.
Brussels first drew up the list in March when Trump initially floated the 25 per cent tariffs on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium, which also target Canada, Mexico and other close allies. The list does not specifically name brands, but European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker spelled out that the bloc would target "Harley-Davidson, bourbon and Levi's jeans". Juncker said that the US decision to impose tariffs "goes against all logic and history".
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