The president said he would impose the levies if the European Union did not walk back plans to place retaliatory tariffs on whiskey and other U.S. products.

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to impose a massive tariff on European alcohol in response to the European Union’s retaliation against his steel and aluminum tariffs – a tit-for-tat escalation of a trade war that could easily get out of hand.

Trump slammed the European Union as “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”