Bourbon, Big Tech, or Tesla: The EU is looking for ways to attack Trump without harming the economy.

BrusselsEuropean partners call for unity and a joint response to Donald Trump's tariff warSeveral European Union trade ministers, who met this Monday in Luxembourg, agree that each member state alone does not have enough strength to implement countermeasures that would have a significant impact on the United States or to force the Republican administration to reconsider. In fact, the EU has not yet lost hope and is holding out its hand in Washington until the last moment. In this regard, Ursula von der Leyen announced this Monday that the European Commission has offered the White House a "zero-for-zero" tariff agreement on industrial goods to avoid an escalation of the trade war between the two powers. "We are always prepared for a good deal," said the head of the EU executive.

According to EU sources, Brussels proposed this to Washington before April 2, when Trump announced the barrage of tariffs, and that, in the case of the EU, it would impose general import tariffs of 20%. The European Commission made this offer within the framework of the contacts held by the European Commissioner for Trade, Maros Sefcovic, with various US authorities. However, negotiations between the European bloc and the Trump administration have so far been fruitless.

For this reason, European partners are preparing to respond to the White House and are already discussing how to jointly respond with new import tariffs that will do the most damage to the US economy and the least to the European one. One of the products on the table is bourbon, which has generated a debate symptomatic of the hesitation European countries have when it comes to counterattacking Trump. On the one hand, it is one of the most iconic alcoholic beverages in the US and is found in the first list that he published The European Commission has issued a response to the White House's tariffs on the European steel and aluminum sector. EU sources argue that punishing bourbon fits perfectly with the objective of the EU's response strategy: it is by no means key to the European economy and could have a strong symbolic and political impact in the United States.

However, France and Italy believe it could be contrary to their commercial interests and oppose applying 50% tariffs to bourbon, which is what the European Commission had envisaged. Why? The wine and alcoholic beverage sector in general The French and Italian authorities fear that this will further encourage the Republican administration to attack wine and champagne imports in the US. In this regard, the European Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, said on Monday that he hopes "bourbon will be removed from the list" of products affected by EU countermeasures.

In fact, this first list of responses to Trump's tariffs on the European steel sector is expected to be agreed upon this Monday among EU trade ministers and ratified by member states in a vote next Wednesday. The initiative requires a qualified majority—at least fifteen countries representing 65% of the total EU population—and, therefore, the positioning of states with such significant weight in the blog as France and Italy could be decisive.

Beyond the debate on bourbon, which has transcended the public sphere, European partners are also discussing all kinds of products and sectors that could harm the Trump administration. And as the hours pass, the idea of not only responding with tariff countermeasures and attacking, for example, large American technology companies is gaining strength. This has been suggested at least by France and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who stated that she is one of the "cards" the EU has at its disposal.

The division, however, is not only evident in the EU, but also in the White House. A few days after Trump announced the 20% tariffs on the European bloc, one of his advisors, the tycoon Elon Musk, said at an event for the Italian far-right party League that he advocates for "a free trade zone between the US and the EU" and that ultimately "they do not end up applying tariffs." In turn, German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Robert Habeck criticized the contradictory messages coming from Washington, and assured that the statements of the owner of X and Tesla are a sign of the "fear" he has that it will end up negatively affecting the US and its companies.

The Mercosur agreement gains followers

Trump's tariff hike against the EU has changed the minds of several member states about the advisability of ratifying the trade agreement with Mercosur, and the most supportive countries, such as Spain, are redoubling pressure for its signing as soon as possible. Although France and Poland remain reluctant, some member states have now come to its defense, such as Austria, or are more open, such as the Netherlands. In fact, despite the differences in the fine print of the pact with Mercosur, there is broad unanimity in the desire to strengthen new trade alliances, whether with South America or, for example, with the Indo-Pacific—especially with Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam—taking advantage of the vacuum that the United States could leave.