EU says it could target $84 billion of U.S. goods if tariff talks fail

The European Commission on Monday said it was putting forward a new list of U.S. goods worth €72 billion ($84 billion) that could be targeted by EU levies if tariff talks with Washington fail.

The bloc's trade chief, Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, announced the proposal, "accounting for some €72 billion worth of U.S. imports," at a meeting with EU ministers in Brussels.

The move came after U.S. President Donald Trump threw months of painstaking negotiations with the EU into disarray by threatening to impose tariffs of 30 percent on the bloc's goods if there is no deal by August 1.

EU trade ministers agreed they were still committed to securing an agreement with Washington before that deadline to head off the damaging duties. At the same time, Brussels is moving to ready potential retaliation if Trump presses ahead with the sweeping tariffs.

"There was a total unified position among the ministers that we should be ready to respond if needed," said Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

He condemned the Trump administration's threat to impose 30 percent tariffs on EU exports as "absolutely unacceptable and unjustified" and is prepared to respond if talks with Washington fail to produce a viable outcome.

The EU has already prepared a separate list of U.S. imports worth €21 billion that it is ready to target over earlier tariffs from Trump on steel and aluminum.

The bloc announced on Sunday that it would further hold off putting that list into force as it searches for a deal with the U.S. by August.

(With input from AFP)