BRUSSELS — The European Commission will ask the Donald Trump administration to
exempt a list of sensitive EU goods ranging from whiskies through to medical
equipment from U.S. tariffs, according to a 27-page list seen by POLITICO.
Pasta, cheese, wines and spirits, as well as olive oil and sunglasses, are among
the priority sectors that Brussels wants Washington to shield from higher
tariffs, along with diamonds, tools, metal pipes, ship engine parts, industrial
equipment, fabrics, shoes, hats, ceramics and industrial robots.
The wish list was finalized Friday by EU countries and will be presented to
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at a
meeting with the bloc’s trade ministers on Monday, POLITICO previously
reported.
These sensitive export sectors were not covered under the trade deal struck in
July by Trump and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry
golf resort in Scotland.
The deal, detailed in a joint statement the following month, exempted some
items, such as aircraft and generic drugs, but imposed a 15 percent tariff on
most other European exports, while the EU committed to scrap its tariffs on U.S.
industrial goods entirely.
The EU’s pitch for tariff relief comes just as Trump is pivoting away from the
across-the-board tariffs he imposed on U.S. trading partners earlier this year,
following a string of off-year election defeats for Republican candidates in
which the rising cost of living swayed voters.
A week ago, he struck down “reciprocal tariffs” on more than 200 goods
worldwide, including products used in fertilizer, tropical fruits like bananas
and pineapples, coffee and several spices like cocoa, cinnamon and coriander.
In his latest move, Trump on Thursday eliminated tariffs on a large swath of
Brazilian agricultural goods, including beef and coffee, dropping the
additional, punitive tariffs he imposed this summer as he feuded with Brazil’s
government and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The EU’s ask to lift tariffs on pasta is particularly sensitive in Italy, where
the industry is reeling from the Trump administration’s threat to impose 92
percent tariffs from January in an anti-dumping case, on top of the 15 percent
already in force — a level so high as to prohibit exports to the United States.
This story has been updated.