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The European Union will propose tariffs on Boeing Co. aircraft and US-made cars if talks with President Donald Trump’s administration fail to de-escalate a brewing trade conflict, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
US industrial goods face the biggest reprisals, while food and agriculture products also will be among the top categories in a new list of duties that the commission will make public on Thursday, the people said on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private. About €100 billion ($114 billion) in American exports would be hit with additional tariffs, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
A surcharge on Boeing sales would help equalize a playing field that EU officials consider unfair to Toulouse, France-based Airbus SE, whose imports to the US are now subject to tariffs, one person said.
Slapping Boeing with tariffs also would punish America’s biggest manufacturing exporter, should the EU decide to counter the unilateral levies Trump imposed on the bloc along with dozens of other US trading partners. The simultaneous US tariff war with China already is squeezing Boeing, with Beijing telling airlines to refrain from taking delivery of its jets.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm that handles trade matters, has been meeting with US officials ever since Trump announced a 20% universal tariff — reduced to 10% until July — on almost all imports from the EU. He also imposed a 25% levy on cars and metals.
A spokesperson for the commission declined to comment on the plans. A Boeing spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached.
Boeing shares fell as much as 1.3% in New York. The stock has risen 4.4% this year as the company makes progress in improving manufacturing quality.
Negotiations between the EU and US have made scant progress and the expectation is that the bulk of the American tariffs will remain in place. The EU said on Tuesday that Trump’s ongoing trade investigations will boost the amount of the bloc’s goods facing tariffs to €549 billion, or 97% of the total.
The US imported more than $52.3 billion worth of new vehicles from the EU last year, according to Commerce Department data. Much of the $11.3 billion worth of autos that the US exported to the bloc were sport utility vehicles built by German manufacturers BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz Group AG.