The EU will hit Trump and target products from Republican states when it adopts tariffs on US goods on Wednesday.

Politico has seen the list that will most likely be adopted today, Wednesday. The EU’s response to US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs shows a clear strategy of hitting the US where it will hurt the most.

According to an internal document accessed by Politico, the Commission is considering imposing tariffs of up to 25 per cent on a wide range of exports from the US worth around €22.1 billion based on EU imports in 2024.

The tariffs will hit items such as cranberry and orange juice and neckties from Florida, ice cream from Arizona, handkerchiefs from South Carolina and electric blankets from Alabama.

All of these states, with the exception of Michigan, are red states.

Soybeans

The EU’s No. 1 target is soya beans. This is the most valuable commodity on the bloc’s hit list, a product whose economic and symbolic importance to the Republican Party’s heartland cannot be overstated.

The US is the world’s second-largest producer and exporter of soybeans, and the EU’s tariffs will hit a sector already hit hard by China’s retaliatory measures, increasing global competition and falling prices. And that’s not all: 82.5 per cent of US soybean exports to the EU come from Louisiana, which is the home state of Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Soy farmers have therefore protested quite strongly against Trump’s tariff war, but so far they have not been supported by the White House.

The tariffs, if enacted, will come into force next week, and on 15 May the EU also plans to impose tariffs on goods such as steel, meat, white chocolate and polyethylene.