LONDON/PARIS, March 12 (Reuters) - Europe's spirits and

cosmetics industries hit back at the European Commission's plan

to slap tariffs on U.S.-made goods on Wednesday, saying it put

the continent's far larger trade with the United States in those

sectors at risk.

The European Commission said it would impose tariffs on 26

billion euros ($28.31 billion) worth of U.S. goods from next

month, ramping up a global trade war in response to U.S. tariffs

on steel and aluminium.

The move will include the re-imposition of suspended tariffs

on goods like bourbon whiskey, as well as new levies on a host

of other products, with other spirits, makeup and essential oils

on the list of possible targets.

Industry association spiritsEurope and French cosmetics

association FEBEA said Brussels was putting European-produced

goods in those sectors, which have large trade surpluses with

the United States, in the firing line for retaliatory tariffs.

"There's an enormous risk that we'll find ourselves with

retaliatory measures that we didn't ask for," said FEBEA

Secretary General Emmanuel Guichard, who added that he has been

urging Brussels for weeks to stop the tariffs from going ahead.

FEBEA, members of which include L'Oreal and Estee

Lauder, said France imports around 500 million euros a

year of American cosmetics, but sends 2.5 billion euros of

beauty products in the other direction.

European spirits makers also feared retaliation from the

U.S., their largest export destination, said Ulrich Adam,

director general of spiritsEurope, which represents top U.S. and

European producers like Diageo ( DEO ) and Jack Daniel's maker

Brown-Forman ( BF/A ).

American whiskey exports to Europe stood at $699 million in

2024, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United

States, which added that the previous tariffs on bourbon imposed

in 2018 caused a 20% decline.

European spirits exports to the U.S. stood at 2.9 billion

euros in 2024, according to spiritsEurope.

"We're being thrown, by our own government, under the bus,"

said a top executive at a large European spirits producer.

France, Spain and Italy had all asked the European

Commission to exclude wine and spirits from the list of targeted

products, the person continued, asking not to be named in order

to speak freely.

Spain's Economy Ministry said it was responding to the needs

of all affected sectors. A French government source said there

was talk of removing bourbon from the list of reinstated

tariffs, but revisions would have prevented a rapid EU response.

Italy's government did not immediately respond to a request

for comment.

SpiritsEurope said many European producers also make U.S.

spirits and could be directly affected by the levies. U.S.

spirits companies are also invested in Europe and throughout the

sector's supply chain, so hurting them puts jobs at risk, it

continued.

Shares in U.S. beauty firms Estee Lauder and Elf Beauty

fell nearly 5%. Spirits stocks were led lower by Brown-Forman ( BF/A ),

which was down 7%.

"We have done some things to try to get us prepared, but

it's a tough spot," Brown-Forman ( BF/A ) CEO Lawson Whiting told the UBS

Consumer and Retail Conference in New York on Wednesday.

($1 = 0.9184 euros)