As US President Donald Trump's new tariff regime clicks into gear, producers around Europe are feeling the impact, some holding back shipments, others hiking sticker prices or taking a hit to margins. Some fear they won't survive at all.
The US will impose a 15 percent tariff on most European exports — which were to be made effective from August 1 but now have been pushed to August 8.
"Companies are waking up to the fact that we're dealing with a historically higher tariff rate," said International Chamber of Commerce Deputy Secretary General Andrew Wilson.
"It's difficult to see that moving unless there are catastrophic consequences of the US economy."
He added the chamber was seeing shipment delays and companies reassessing supply chain strategies. Trading with the United States was now "hellishly more difficult."
"The complexity of doing business with the US has gone to levels nobody could have imagined," he said.
In Germany's Moselle Valley, winemaker Johannes Selbach said tariffs were damaging for the industry on both sides of the Atlantic. They had been hoping for zero-for-zero tariffs, but face 15 percent for now, with sector-specific talks ongoing.
"The tariffs hurt the Americans and they hurt us," Selbach said in a warehouse surrounded by crates of wine with "USA" written on them in black letters.
"Thousands of families who produce wine in Europe and thousands of families in the importing, wholesaling, retailing, restaurant businesses in the US are dependent on the flow from both sides," he said, adding jobs and profits would be hit.
Different sectors face varying degrees of pain. Higher-end luxury brands have more pricing power to adapt to the tariffs.
Big companies can swallow some margin loss or shift some production into the US, though often not all of it.
Even big consumer firms like Procter & Gamble have flagged US price hikes to deal with the tariff impact. Adidas said it could increase prices.
Reuters' global tariff tracker shows at least 99 out of nearly 300 companies monitored have announced price hikes in response to the trade war, most from Europe.
Trump has said the tariffs are a response to persistent US trade imbalances and declining US manufacturing power, and that the moves will bring jobs and investment to the nation.
