Instead of tackling the actual issue—the EU’s own struggling steel industry— Brussels’ counterattack is a scattergun mess, taxing everything from cough drops to communion wafers.
The European Union wants to look tough on trade. The Trump administration has imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, shutting European producers out of their second-largest market. Worse, cheap steel from countries like China, Turkey, and India—now blocked from the US—threatens to flood into Europe and gut the EU’s own steel industry. This is a real problem. So how has Brussels responded?
By taxing cough drops, communion wafers, and corsets.
Rather than responding with anything resembling a coherent strategy, the European Union has retaliated with a 99-page list of tariffs.
For now, salmon has been spared, but the industry isn’t out of the woods. Tariffs on feed ingredients like soybeans and fish oil threaten to drive up costs across the board. When fish farmers pay more for feed, that cost is passed down the chain, straight to consumers.
Political theatre?
This isn’t a tactical counterpunch—it’s political theatre. The EU could have defended steel with targeted measures, but instead, it’s taxing Prosecco, mustard, and gorgonzola. These aren’t competing industries. US food exports don’t threaten European agriculture any more than French Roquefort threatens Wisconsin cheddar. This is not a strategy—it’s a bad joke.
These industries exist in parallel, not in competition. Yet Brussels, rather than crafting a precise, strategic response, has decided to tax European consumers for the sake of appearing strong.
Meanwhile, the real issue—the EU’s steel sector—is left untouched. High costs, suffocating regulations, and political inertia have made European steel less competitive, and no amount of tariff posturing will change that. Instead of fixing its own problems, the EU is making dinner more expensive.
Trade retaliation should be about leverage, not self-sabotage. Brussels thinks it’s playing hardball, but all it’s really doing is making life harder for the people it’s supposed to represent.
If this is the EU’s idea of “standing up for industry,” then maybe they should sit down.
