Trump vows to slap 200% tariffs on European wine and spirits

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Mar 13, 2025

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President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to slap 200% tariffs on wine and other alcoholic beverages imported from European Union countries as he escalates his trade war aimed at geopolitical friends and foes alike.

Trump said he would up the ante after the E.U. imposed its own 50% tax on American whiskey, a move that itself was a response to the White House tariff on European steel and aluminum.

“The U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

Europe signaled it wouldn’t back down.

“Trump is escalating the trade war he has chosen,” Laurent Saint-Martin, the French delegate minister for foreign trade, said on X. “France, together with the European Commission and our partners, is determined to fight back. We will not give in to threats and will always protect our industries.”

It’s the second day this week that Trump trade war headlines have roiled global markets.

Trump threatened to double his planned tariffs against Canada on Tuesday after Ontario provincial Premier Doug Ford said he would add a big surcharge on electricity headed across the border to the U.S. Both sides backed down later in the day.

The new president’s first weeks in office have been marked by near-daily drama on tariffs, which Trump believes can be used as leverage to achieve other economic and geopolitical aims.

He says that taxing imports might cause some economic pain but would eventually lead to more domestic manufacturing and greater respect for America. Many economists say they are counterproductive and hurt workers and consumers.

European Commission spokesman Olof Gill said Thursday shortly before Trump’s announcement that the E.U. was “prepared for whatever might come, and we have been preparing for over a year.”

But he called for talks to calm the trade waters.

“We want to negotiate to avoid tariffs in the future,” Gill added. “They bring nothing but lose-lose outcomes, and we want to focus on win-win outcomes.”

U.S. whiskey makers, meanwhile, urged Trump to broker a deal and called for “toasts not tariffs.”

“We urge President Trump to secure a spirits agreement with the E.U. to get us back to zero-for-zero tariffs, which will create U.S. jobs and increase manufacturing and exports for the American hospitality sector,” said Chris Swonger of the Distilled Spirits Council.

In 2018, Europe responded to another round of Trump with a 25% tax on U.S. whiskey, sending exports to the E.U. plunging by 20% through 2021, according to the Distilled Spirits Council.

Trump’s separate planned 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico could also put another 31,000 jobs at risk in the booze sector, the trade group said.

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