US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to slap a 200 percent tariff on wine, cognac, and other alcohol imports from Europe.

Trump's threat came in response to a European Union plan to impose tariffs on American whisky and other products next month - which itself is a response to Trump's 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports that took effect on Wednesday.

The European Commission had no immediate comment on Trump's post.

Canada, a neighbour and close ally that is the US's biggest aluminium provider, has also announced countermeasures of its own to Trump's metals tariffs and has taken the dispute to the World Trade Organization.

At an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte later on Thursday, he said he would not back off from reciprocal tariffs he has vowed to impose on all trading partners on April 2.

"We've been ripped off for years, and we're not going to be ripped off," Trump said.

Alcohol is shaping up to be a key friction point in the brewing trade war.

Many of the EU's proposed countermeasures, worth US$28.31 billion in all, would apply to products that have little more than symbolic value, such as dental floss and bathrobes.

But the proposed 50 percent duty on US bourbon would be a significant hit for the industry, which has seen exports grow steadily since the United States lifted tariffs Trump imposed during his first term in office.

The EU accounted for roughly 40 percent of all spirits exports in 2023, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade group.

Likewise, the United States accounts for 31 percent of EU wine and spirits exports, according to Eurostat.

Industry officials on both sides of the Atlantic urged their leaders to de-escalate. "This cycle of tit-for-tat retaliation must end now!" said spiritsEurope, an industry trade group.

Trump says tariffs are a crucial tool to revitalise US industries that have withered due to decades of globalisation. But US importers and distributors said it would lead to lost sales, layoffs, and shuttered businesses. (Reuters)