Vincent McAviney: Europe Correspondent on Trump's threat of 200% tariffs on European alcohol

Donald Trump is threatening to slap 200% tariffs on European alcohol. 

The EU is planning to impose tariffs on American bourbon next month, in retaliation to steel and aluminium levies. 

A spokesperson for the bloc says they're preparing to discuss the situation with the US. 

Europe correspondent Vincent McAviney told Andrew Dickens spirits, wine, and champagne would all be affected. 

He says it would be absolutely drastic to their prices, which are both big EU exports but also in high demand in the US. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's meetings in Moscow. Putin has spoken. He says he
supports the ceasefire, but he sees a whole lot of
other stuff. We're joined now by Vincent mcavinie. Hello, Vincent,
good morning. What's going down.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, we're having to decrip what exactly Vladimir Putin means.
In the past twenty four hours, he's visited the Cursek
region of Russia, which has been held for several months
by Ukrainian forces, but they seem to be struggling to
keep the territory. Putin appeared very rarely for him, addressed
in military uniform, saying that now Russia had control of

(00:34):
its own territory. This was thought to be a sort
of key bargaining chip that Zelensky had in negotiations for
territory which Russia controls. Now, what we've heard in this
press conference, we know that this US envoy, having got
agreement from the Ukrainian team, was on its way to Moscow.
Putin has said that he agrees with peace proposal, but

(00:54):
says it needs to lead to an enduring peace. There
was some sort of diplomatic circus sire acts going on
in this press conference talking about the need to make
sure the underlying causes of the crisis are resolved for
that enduring peace. So it'll be up to the Trump
team to try to unpick what exactly that means. But

(01:15):
for now, the bombardment between the two nations continues, big
strikes on Moscow this week by the Ukrainians.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
It's such a process, isn't it this. You have to
negotiate the negotiations, then you have to negotiate a ceasefire,
and then you can go and negotiate possible lasting peace.
Is Putin asking for too much too soon?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I think he feels pretty emboldened at this point.
He's drawn barely a word of condemnation from the Trump
administration versus the treatment that Presidents Lensky and the Ukrainians
have faced. That's always worth reistrating that if Vladimir Putin
wanted to end this today tomorrow, he could do. He
could pull his forces out. It was his fault. He
invaded the territory, it was an act of war. They've

(01:56):
committed war crimes in the territory. So every once peace,
he could simply pull his troops back. But he's not
doing that. So we'll see where this goes now.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Now, I meanwhile, Donald Trump has written the EU with
a two hundred percent tariff. It's a big number. It's
on alcohol.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, that's right. So the EU was hit earlier in
this week by the latest round of Trump tariffs are
particularly on steel and aluminium are twenty five percent tariff.
They got hit by that, so they have struck back
with sort of retaliatory tariffs, but particularly citing sort of
US goods. So those were for instance, Harley Davidson motorbikes

(02:34):
and Bourbon of course, which is you know, American whiskey.
So the Donald Trump has now sort of responded to
that particular front, saying he's going to put a two
hundred percent tariff on alcohol from EU countries and of
course that will be you know, wines from France and Italy,
champagne as well spirits. I mean, it would be absolutely
drastic to the prices of those products which are big

(02:58):
EU exports. But also there is you know, high demand
and great love for in America as well.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, of course, And I thank you for your time today,
Vincent McAvennie.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.