cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/27100578
Archive link for those of us still considering retaliatory tariffs.
This is a nonsense. The drinks industry don’t want bourbon tariffs in the hope that will mean there won’t be tarrifs on EU booze. But there are blanket tarriffs on all EU products, so relenting on Bourbon specifically will do nothing but benefit the US drinks industry.
Robert Habeck is right - the EU is in a position of strength standing together and should target any response to most hurt the US President.
The US will have blanket tarrifs which are essentially a tax on Americans. The EU can’t directly affect those but it also should not have blanket tarrifs on US goods as that will just damage the EU economy further. Instead it should have targeted tarrifs and other measures designed to hit the US (particularly republican states - thats why bourbon was picked in the first place), and meanwhile work with other tariff hit countries to lower the cost of business in their directions.
One way to look at it, is if its now 20% more expensive to sell resources and goods to the US, its actually 20% relatively cheaper to do business with the rest of the world. So thats where growth is going to come from. Tarrif US stuff that strategically benefits Europe (cars for example), don’t tariff other US stuff so the EU benefits and look to the rest of the world for growth and opportunities.
In some ways the US is handing the EU a golden opportunity to take over much of the US economic influence and power around the world.
Sherry makers in Jerez need US oak barrels for sherry as others are pricier and not the same in terms of flavor.
Scotch producers use both bourbon and sherry barrels so they especially dont want these tarriffs
Overall, this seems like a minor issue in the kerfuffle but I thought about this, probably a bit too long …
- Are the empty barrels even affected by tariffs on bourbon? Are you just worrying there may not be enough barrels overall because bourbon demand dries up?
- Is the barrel question time-sensitive? Or could they just wait until EU & US have finished coming to terms with each other?
- Would people even notice if their spirits were aged in neutral barrels but with wood chips thrown in for flavor? Would that produce a naming issue (i.e. the EU forbidding these products from being sold as sherry or scotch?
Are the empty barrels even affected by tariffs on bourbon? Are you just worrying there may not be enough barrels overall because bourbon demand dries up?
both
Is the barrel question time-sensitive? Or could they just wait until EU & US have finished coming to terms with each other?
They could wait but it would impact production overall spiking the prices even more including outside the ISA for sherry and Scotch.
Would people even notice if their spirits were aged in neutral barrels but with wood chips thrown in for flavor?
Most would as you would get more of he overt wood flavor and less of things like butter, cream, cocoa, nutty flavors that barrels impart.
Would that produce a naming issue (i.e. the EU forbidding these products from being sold as sherry or scotch?
Neither require bourbon barrels they just use them because they are less expensive than other oak barrels.
Interesting! Thanks (belatedly)!
And again Habeck is the voice of reason. I’ll miss him.
Grow some balls Europe because they’re not going to stop coming up with new demands
Well… you may be not, Mr. Šefčovič, but i, for once, am absolutely in the business for “BURN IT ALL DOWN”…
Just my two €-cent
It is likely that the EU is dropping bourbon taxes because US barrels are very important to wineries and distilleries in the EU.
Also, many wine regions in the USA are in liberal states, so this could be the EU trying to target their tarrifs.
Also American wine tastes like crap so no one is buying it anyway
No need for appeasement, guys
That’s a hard paywall if I ever saw one!
There’s a archive link. Here it is again: https://archive.is/20250407153840/https://www.ft.com/content/180063de-15a8-4077-8daf-a6a591e117ec
Smart man. Retaliatory tariffs, but not at the cost of our own industries
Not sure if you are sarcastic or not.
If we impose retaliatory tariffs it will be damaging the US industries first. The backtracking now comes as Trump threatens to escalate even further with tariffs. Problem is that caving in to that behavior only encourages him to act more like this.
Also it will be pathetic for the EU to succumb to Trump as the rest of the world is fighting back because of the lobbying of the alcohol industry.
The US is hurting itself the most with tariffs. There is more to trade than just consumer spending.
If you manufacture something in the US, where do you get your materials from? All the switches, resistors, wall anchors, tools… You have a shop that’s 100% using German machine tools you can’t expand anymore. Intel cannot built or upgrade fabs because ASML is dutch. Using any power tools? Built in China. Yes they are buying less stuff but they also sabotage their own ability to built stuff. Every US product will get more expensive anyway due to this.
They are doing this at the same time that they massively cut public spending for a nice double-whammy. They can’t even react because they are indiscriminately axeing the state workforce.
I understand your reasoning but tariffs all around are just not the right tool as they affect your own market first and while the eu is the second biggest consumer market after the us, it just hasn’t the same margins to cut into for tariffs to properly bite.
So all the EU can do with them is to make it hurt while trying to avoid exactly the damage to the own economy that the US is causing. That way you try to leverage the reciprocal approach while trying to carry the economy for as long as possible.
That Trump is willing to escalate is apparent with China, but contrary to the EU, China has monopolies on goods and resources that it can (and already does) utilize to supplement tariffs. That will cause bigger damage than tariffs over time.
Of course the biggest absurdity is that a trade war like this harms the engine of every single country affected, destroying value AND lives just as much as a real war does but without the visibility.
Giving in to Trumps threats of tariffs now, what ensures he won’t come up with new ideas why trade would be unfair and threaten more tariffs again? He did the same with Ukraine and minerals. You think you have a deal and he will come up with new demands.
If the US wants to buy wine and whisky from somewhere else, let them. They imposed tariffs on almost every country in the world. And of all possibly affected industries, the alcohol industry deserves among the least considerations, given how much damage their products cause to the general public and how many individuals are killed from alcohol addiction and related issues.
