The European Commission is seeking feedback on a 99-page hit list and respondents have until March 26 to reply.
BRUSSELS — The European Commission has published a list of U.S. products that could be subject to retaliatory tariffs after the Donald Trump administration on Wednesday imposed 25 percent global tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The 99-page list is dominated by meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables and alcoholic beverages — and includes chewing gum, communion wafers, nicotine vapes and patches, and … women’s négligées.
Other items read like an attack on the American way of life — including outdoor wear, tents, workshop tools and household appliances. And then there are heavy-duty items like plant machinery, snowplows and motorcycles.
Such lists are typically designed to cause economic pain in the home states of Republican lawmakers who could influence Trump to abandon his trade war. Usually straight-laced trade bureaucrats will admit if pressed that compiling them is the most fun part of their job.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Commission announced a two-stage retaliation covering €26 billion in EU exports that far exceeded a trade fight that blew up in Trump’s first term.
Absent a negotiated settlement it will, from April 1, reimpose measures in response to €8 billion in U.S. tariffs — including on iconic American products such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon and jeans. And, from mid-April, it will set further countermeasures over €18 billion in new U.S. tariffs, subject to the approval of EU member countries.
The EU executive has launched a survey seeking the views of those affected by the U.S. tariffs, setting a deadline for submissions of March 26.
