The US is increasing its tariffs as high as 100% on a list of European products that the Trump administration has so far avoided. The list of products includes some of the most high class and important products like whiskeys from Ireland and Scotland and Cognac.
The officials of the United States Trade Representative on Thursday came out with another list of goods which the US imports from the European countries. It is considering setting up tariffs on these products with immediate effect.
The move if done by the US will be to avenge the fact that Airbus the prime aircraft manufacturer had received subsidies from major European economies to compete against Boeing the US counterpart and sell its aircraft to the US at a reduced cost.
The USTR had earlier this year published a list of items that it imports from Europe and the total value of the goods that were imported every year stood at $10 billion. In October the US government set a tariff of 10% on commercial aircraft and 25% on the agricultural goods imported from the EU.
Now the USTR is wondering that whether to increase the rates of the tariffs to 100% from its current rate which would be an increase by 10 times or whether to put tariffs on additional items that it had previously excluded from the tariff list while setting the tariffs in October.
These new items if added to the tariff list would be set at a 100% tariff rate. Among the list of products are some of the delicacies and world-class products such as Scotch and Irish whiskeys and Cognac. Other items include Spanish olive oil, French cheese, German knives, and Portuguese fish fillets.
But according to critics, the US is trying to reduce its trade deficits as well by the use of these tariffs.