Caterpillar trucks, Xerox machines and Samsonite luggage are among US goods that would face retaliatory European Union tariffs should US President Donald Trump follow through on a threat to impose automotive duties against the bloc, according to a senior EU official.

The person commented Friday on the condition of anonymity because the tit-for-tat list drawn up by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm in Brussels, is still a confidential draft.

The EU's warning of targeted duties reflects its two-pronged approach to Trump's "America First" agenda. The 28-nation bloc is working in parallel toward a limited trans-Atlantic commercial accord in a bid to keep at bay new U.S. levies on cars and auto parts. "Should there be tariffs on car and car parts, which we don't want, we have started internally to prepare a list of re-balancing measures," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said after a meeting of the bloc's commerce ministers. "There is full support to do this."

The commission said last month the EU would hit €20bn ($22.7bn) of US products should Trump impose duties on European automotive goods on the same national-security grounds that he invoked last year to tax foreign steel and aluminium.

Bloomberg

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