US facing new Prohibition Era after Donald Trump’s latest rant about alcohol

The US president has threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wines and other alcoholic products coming out of Europe

American-style champagne and wine from US vineyards – this is the new world according to Donald Trump.

Never one to shy from a trade war, the US president has threatened to slap a whooping 200% tariff on wines and other alcoholic products coming out of Europe.

This is in response to the European Union’s planned tax on whiskey from the States.

He wrote on Truth Social: ‘The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the US, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky.

‘If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the US will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER EE REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.

‘This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the US.’

Such tariffs would usher in a new kind of Prohibition Era – not one by law, but by sheer unaffordability.

The measures are part of a chain reaction started by Trump who unveiled blanket US tariffs on steel and aluminum from other countries.

In response, the European Commission said on Wednesday that it plans to impose counter tariffs on $28 billion worth of US goods from next month.

The EU executive said, however, that it remained open to negotiations and considered higher tariffs in no one’s interest.

Trump’s hyper-focus on tariffs has rattled investor, consumer and business confidence and raised recession fears. 

French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said that ‘Trump is escalating the trade war he has chosen to start’ and that his country would ‘fight back.’

‘France remains determined to respond with the European Commission and our partners,’ he wrote on X.

‘We will not give in to threats and will always protect our sectors.’

Olof Gill, trade spokesperson for the EU Commission, called on the US ‘to immediately revoke’ the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed yesterday in a briefing.

‘We want to negotiate, to avoid tariffs in the future,’ he said. ‘They bring nothing but lose-lose outcomes, and we want to focus on win-win outcomes.’

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