Investing.com - The European Union is postponing a 50% tariff on U.S. whiskey until mid-April, aligning them with other countermeasures the bloc has taken against the Trump administration’s sweeping levies on steel and aluminum imports, according to media reports.
In a hearing at the European Parliament on Thursday, European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said the move would give member states more time to negotiate with their U.S. counterparts, Reuters reported.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, has said it may re-impose 2018 duties on 4.5 billion euros worth of U.S. products on April 1, with tariffs on a further 18 billion euros in American items set to come into effect on April 13. American bourbon was included in the first set of retaliatory tariffs.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in response to the EU’s announcement last week, threatened to place a 200% on champagne and wine from Europe. It marked the latest escalation in trade tensions between Washington and Brussels since Trump returned to the White House earlier this year.
Trump has referred to the EU as "hostile and abusive," while the bloc has hit out at tariffs as "bad for business, and worse for consumers."
The White House is also planning to roll out reciprocal and sectoral tariffs on April 2 that would apply to EU goods.
Sefcovic noted that the EU has made little headway on trade discussions with U.S. officials so far, including a proposal on bringing down tariffs on industrial goods, Reuters has reported.
Still, the EU is ready to engage in "constructive dialogue" with the U.S. in order to "seek a solution that avoids unnecessary harm to both economies," Bloomberg News reported, citing a statement from an EU spokesperson.