Ahead of Trump's announcement, the US Trade Representative released a preliminary list of goods to be taxed, with its whopping 14 pages going into great detail regarding specific goods, from "boiled claims in immediate airtight containers, the contents of which do not exceed 680 g gross weight" to "artists' brushes, writing brushes and similar brushes for the application of cosmetics, valued o/10 cents each."
The biggest items on the list include helicopters, aeroplanes, undercarriages and fuselages, with the caveat that they are "not for use by the Department of Defence or the US Coast Guard." Other manufactured goods include motorcycles and bicycles and associated accessories, a variety of paper products, textiles, carpets, outerwear and knit sweaters, tiles, building stones and cement articles, ceramics, products made from iron, steel, copper, nickel, zinc and other metals, tools, knives, industrial cooking materials, lenses for cameras, binoculars, telescopic sights, and several categories of wall clocks and personal time pieces.
The World Trade Organization finds that the European Union subsidies to Airbus has adversely impacted the United States, which will now put Tariffs on $11 Billion of EU products! The EU has taken advantage of the U.S. on trade for many years. It will soon stop!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 9 апреля 2019 г.
The list also proposes tariffs on a mouth-watering assortment of exotic foods, from swordfish, lobster, salmon, trout and crab meat, to yogurts, butters, almost two pages-worth of various cheeses, fruits, vegetables, food and cooking oils, "prepared or preserved snails," tinned olives, jams, waters, wines, liqueurs, juices, chocolate milk drinks and nonalcoholic beer.
Companies Affected
The breadth of the products featured in the US Trade Representative's list means that the vast majority of EU countries will be affected by the restrictions in one way or another.
However, market-focused observers have indicated that Airbus, British Airways owner IAG, Rolls-Royce, British aerospace engineering and technology companies Meggitt PLC and QinetiQ, as well as the UK's Associated British Foods and Cranswick and Ireland's Greencore food producers have already faced a 0.4-2 percent tumble in stock prices in Tuesday trading.
So in other words you are taxing the American consumer another $11 billion. Let’s see what this does to the economy.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) 9 апреля 2019 г.
Stocks of the UK-based AG Barr, Britvic, Coca Cola HBC, and Diageo drinks companies also declined, with UK fashion brands Burberry and Ted Baker and British-Dutch personal care products company Unilever facing its own drop.
According to an analysis by the Jefferies investment banking company cited by Business Insider, Italian beverage maker Campari Group, French alcoholic beverage maker Pernod Ricard, the UK's Fever-Tree drink co, and Dutch beer brewer Heineken face revenue losses of up to 6% as a result of the new Trump tariffs.
World trading system rigged against America. But, Donald Trump is fighting the wrong war, at the wrong time, against the wrong enemies. We need to penalize Corporations for shipping American jobs overseas, not hurt free trade by manipulating the prices of goods
— ♻️🇺🇸 Christopher Zullo (@ChrisJZullo) 9 апреля 2019 г.
Washington's row with Brussels over subsidies to Airbus, a long-time competitor to US aerospace giant Boeing, dates back to 2004, when the US first appealed to the World Trade Organisation for arbitration. The WTO calculated that Airbus received some $18 billion in subsidies from EU member states between 1968 and 2006. US officials suggested that these subsidies have led to a decline in Boeing sales and lost market share across the world. Brussels countered, accusing Washington of providing Boeing with similar forms of support, including tax breaks. Brussels estimates that Washington has dumped over $5 billion in subsidies for the plane maker between 1989 and 2006.
