EU Targets Boeing, US Cars and Bourbon With $84 Billion List

The European Union has finalized a second list of countermeasures to target U.S. goods worth €72 billion ($84 billion), including Boeing Co. aircraft, automobiles and bourbon if it decides to retaliate against Donald Trump’s tariff policy.

Trump on Monday said he is still open to more trade negotiations with the E.U. after announcing over the weekend a 30% levy on E.U. imports that will kick in on Aug. 1 if the two sides fail to agree on a better deal. E.U. trade chief Maros Sefcovic was planning to speak with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick late Monday as he pushes for a settlement that the E.U. insists must be mutually beneficial to both sides.

“We’re always open to talk,” the U.S. president told reporters at the White House. “We are open to talk, including to Europe. In fact, they’re coming over. They’d like to talk.”

Over the weekend, Trump set out his plans for higher E.U. tariffs which Sefcovic called “effectively prohibitive” to transatlantic trade. E.U. trade ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss next steps.

The additional E.U. duties would also be slapped on U.S. machinery products, chemicals and plastics, medical devices, electrical equipment, wines and other agricultural goods, according to a 206-page list prepared by the European Commission and seen by Bloomberg News.

The list, initially hitting American goods totaling €95 billion, was cut down after consultations with companies and member states. Countries must give their approval before the list’s adoption. The suite of measures pre-dates the weekend letter threatening to raise tariffs to 30% and represents the E.U.’s response to an earlier so-called reciprocal tariff of 20% hitting most goods as well as the additional levies on cars and car parts of 25%.

European Commission representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday morning. The list, which was reported earlier by Politico, does not include a tariff rate for the goods.

Keep Talking

The preference among most E.U. officials is to keep negotiations on track, while maintaining the threat of retaliation.

“We have until the end of this month to conduct the talks. Over the weekend, I added my voice to calls for not applying reciprocal levies,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday at a news conference in Bavaria. “But the American government shouldn’t underestimate our willingness to react to an excessive tariff burden with similar measures.”

Benjamin Haddad, France’s minister for European affairs, said the response from Brussels should include the option of using the EU’s anti-coercion mechanism — which can be invoked to impose taxes on US tech giants. “In this negotiation, you need to show strength, you need to show force, unity and resolve,” Haddad told Bloomberg Television.

Over the weekend, the E.U. announced it was set to extend a suspension of tariffs on a first list of €21 billion of US products in response to additional steel and aluminum tariffs from Trump.

The E.U.’s new list of targeted US products includes more than €65 billion of industrial goods, including mostly aircraft (nearly €11 billion), machinery (more than €9.4 billion) and cars (nearly €8 billion). More than €6 billion of US goods hit are agrifood products, mostly fruits and vegetables (nearly €2 billion) and alcoholic drinks (€1.2 billion).

The broad package also includes precision equipment and instruments (nearly €5 billion), toys and hobby equipment (more than €500 million), sports guns (nearly €300 million) or musical instruments (around €200 million).

Some of the criteria to choose the goods were the availability of alternative sources of supply and products where the risk of relocation is high, according to the document. Imported military products will not be subject to the duties.

Top photo: Bottles of Jack Daniel’s American whiskey for sale in a store in Lisbon, Portugal. Photographer: Zed Jameson/Bloomberg.