European Union officials on Monday were set to circulate a list of products they plan to hit with retaliatory tariffs, a major step toward striking back at President Trump as he ignites a global trade war.
Representatives from across the bloc’s 27 member states are expected to vote on the wave of tariffs on Wednesday, and a solid coalition would be required to block them from taking effect. They are expected to go into force starting on April 15.
A preliminary version of the list included a broad variety of goods like whiskey, boats, clothing and soybeans. Officials spent several weeks vetting it, hoping to minimize pain for European companies and consumers.
While the updated list has yet to be published, details began to emerge on Monday. One senior E.U. official suggested that bourbon could be left off the final version. And the bloc’s trade commissioner said that the value of goods on the list would be smaller than the original 26 billion euro total, after it had been trimmed down during conversations with member states.
The wave of tariffs would be the E.U.’s first concrete step in retaliating against the sweeping set of trade measures Mr. Trump has announced in recent weeks. They would specifically respond to steel and aluminum tariffs that took hold in mid-March.
More is expected. European Union officials have been clear that they are also readying a response to Mr. Trump’s subsequent moves, including the 25 percent tariffs on automobiles and the 20 percent across-the-board tariff on E.U. goods that he announced last week.
But officials are moving slowly and deliberately, avoiding a single sweeping set of retaliatory moves, in hopes of giving the United States time to come to the table to make a deal.
Both Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and the E.U. trade minister, Maros Sefcovic, announced on Monday that the bloc was offering to drop tariffs on cars and industrial goods to zero — a notable move, since E.U. car tariffs are currently set at 10 percent.
But even as they offer potential wins to the Trump administration, European officials also want to make it clear that they will not accept America’s actions without a decisive response.
“We are fully prepared to sit at the negotiation table whenever our American partners are ready,” Mr. Sefcovic said on Monday in Luxembourg. He said he had what he described as a frank two-hour meeting with his American counterparts late last week.
“While the E.U. remains open to and strongly prefers negotiations, we will not wait endlessly,” Mr. Sefcovic added. “We are prepared to use every tool in our trade defense arsenal.”
The stakes are high, as tensions escalate. The European Union is arguably America’s most important trading partner. And the United States is by far the largest export market for European goods.
European officials are cognizant that an all-out trade war could be painful on both sides of the Atlantic.
That is why they took time to edit the first set of retaliatory lists. Officials wanted to take into account feedback from across the continent.
Part of the list was originally meant to take hold on March 31. It was instead delayed for further refinement after Mr. Trump threatened to respond to it — and in particular to the inclusion of whiskey — by slapping a 200 percent tariff on all European alcohol.
Such a move would be crushing for French and Italian winemakers, and policymakers from those countries voiced alarm.
Whiskey is now expected by many to be dropped from the final list. Stéphane Séjourné, an executive vice president of the European Commission, said during a radio interview on Monday that he hoped that it would no longer be on the list, and that “We should have good news.”
The whiskey and wine tariff episode underscored the challenge in maintaining a firm and united front in responding to tariffs. Countries across the continent have different economic priorities and different appetites for hitting back at the United States.
Some Northern European countries have been adamant that the European Union must be forceful in its response — even proposing trade barriers on services, and in particular on big American technology companies like Google.
But the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has called the idea that Italy must choose between the United States and the bloc “childish.” She has also cautioned against harsh retaliation.
E.U. officials had initially hoped to avoid a trade conflict altogether.
They spent last fall and early this year dangling carrots — like ramped-up purchases of American liquid natural gas — hoping to avoid a showdown altogether. But that strategy failed. Instead, Washington has taken a far more aggressive tack than many analysts and officials had expected. That has left European policymakers racing to respond.
Part of the challenge now is that the United States has shown little appetite for a quick deal.
American officials seem to view the tariffs “not as a tactical step, but as a corrective,” Mr. Sefcovic said on Monday.
For E.U. officials, it is also difficult to tell exactly who has influence over trade policy — and what exactly the administration’s ultimate goals are.
Elon Musk, the technology entrepreneur and Mr. Trump’s close adviser, said on Saturday, speaking during a videoconference appearance with Italy’s far-right League party in Florence. that he hoped that Europe and the United States would move “to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone.”
But Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, on Monday urged the European Union to drop its value-added taxes and restrictions on American meat that is produced with hormones or other chemicals.
“You steal from the American people every which way is possible,” he said. “So don’t just say we’re going to lower our tariffs.”
