The list of U.S. imports worth 2.8 billion euros includes a vast range of items, such as cranberry, orange juice, peanut butter, jeans, cosmetics, motorcycles, and steel products.
While the list did not name specific brands, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European commission, have warned that the EU intends to tax items such as Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Levi’s jeans.
Some analysts believe that the EU’s retaliatory tariffs mainly targeted agricultural products from red states to put pressure on the Republicans in the mid-term election.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders in March to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports, but granted temporary exemptions to the EU, Canada and Mexico. The U.S. eventually ended the exemptions at the start of June.
The EU’s second-phase countermeasures are expected to begin in March 2021, which involves 10 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent, and 50 percent tariffs on different US products approximately 3.6 billion euros in total worth.