EU seeks tariff reprieve ahead of crucial Trump meeting
Brussels has prepared a plea to shield Europe’s wine and spirits from sweeping US tariffs as transatlantic trade manoeuvring enters a new phase.
The European Commission will today (24 November) ask the Trump administration to exempt a range of sensitive EU products from US tariffs, with wine and spirits sitting prominently in the request, according to a 27-page list seen by Politico. The list, finalised on Friday by EU countries, is to be presented to commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and trade representative Jamieson Greer at a meeting with EU trade ministers today.
These drinks categories were left outside the trade deal struck in July at Trump’s Turnberry resort with Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. That agreement exempted aircraft and generic drugs but set a 15% tariff on most other European exports while the EU removed its own tariffs on US industrial goods entirely, according to Politico.
A shifting tariff landscape in Washington
The Commission’s pitch comes just as Trump pivots away from the across-the-board tariff strategy he used earlier in the year. This shift follows off-year election losses in which voters were swayed by the rising cost of living. Last week he removed reciprocal tariffs on more than 200 goods worldwide, including products used in fertiliser, bananas, pineapples, coffee and spices such as cocoa, cinnamon and coriander.
On Thursday he also removed tariffs on a wide range of Brazilian agricultural goods, including beef and coffee, reversing punitive measures he introduced during a political clash with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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Wine sector fears being left behind
Context from July 2025 reporting by the drinks business shows that European wine producers were already anxious about Washington’s direction. At that time, President Trump had threatened sweeping 50% tariffs on EU exports from 1 August. The move stoked fears that wine could be excluded from any preferential treatment in the emerging trade pact.
Annual EU wine shipments to the United States are worth about US$5.9 billion and the sector relies on thousands of smaller companies and cooperatives that together make up a powerful rural constituency. Although major luxury houses such as LVMH have wine interests, their cumulative political weight is limited compared with the agricultural lobby, as per the drinks business.
Concerns grew that Trump might try to exploit this political pressure by keeping wine outside any deal until he extracted further concessions. Over that same weekend Marzia Varvaglione, president of the European wine producers group CEEV, said: “We are deeply concerned about the potential exclusion of wine from the list of sensitive goods included in the deal package.”
Spirits in the firing line
Reuters reporting last week indicated that the EU was close to securing baseline tariffs of 10% for aircraft and parts, some medical equipment and alcoholic beverages, though whether wine would be included remained unclear. EU officials have continued to call for a zero-for-zero approach for the alcohol trade.
Even though Trump is a teetotaller, he understands Brussels would meet any tariffs on European spirits with penalties on US distillers, particularly in Kentucky and Tennessee. At the same time he has faced lobbying from the US wine sector which argues American growers are suffering from constrained consumer spending.
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