“If we don’t get down from 10 percent, there’s no negotiation, no deal,” they added.
The lineup is subject to change, as businesses and EU countries will have until June 10 to provide feedback and advocate for sensitive goods to be removed from the list to avoid being caught in Trump’s reprisals.
This happened when the Commission in April consulted with EU capitals for its retaliation against Trump’s earlier steel and aluminum tariffs, with bourbon whiskey being removed at the request of France, Italy and Ireland. In the end, these measures were announced, but not implemented, as Trump suspended the reciprocal tariffs.
The threatened EU tariffs on aircraft would deal a heavy blow against Boeing, the troubled U.S. plane maker, and could reignite a long-running transatlantic subsidy dispute that was laid to rest after Trump’s first term.
“Boeing is very welcome to reply,” the senior official added, referring to the American plane maker that could be hit majorly if these tariffs are enacted.
The total value of the listed products is much lower than the €379 billion of EU exports that is affected by U.S. tariffs. A second senior Commission official said Brussels had shown some restraint, “to not shoot ourselves in the foot. We want to be prudent,” to avoid a spiralling tit-for-tat dynamic that would ultimately “hurt our industry.”