Kickstart: The EU's retaliatory tariffs could include PE

An increase in tariffs for all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. launched by President Donald Trump's administration has the European Union considering tariffs on U.S.-made goods, including resins.

The EU is accepting comments on a 99-page list of potential retaliatory tariffs until March 26. Those duties would be part of a two-stage response that would begin April 1 with tariffs on a number of items that the EU had suspended under President Joe Biden's administration. An additional $19 billion in tariffs are being considered for an April 13 escalation, the Associated Press reports.

The list includes grades of polyethylene, olefin, nylons and a range of end products using those materials.

"We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geopolitical and economic uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with tariffs," Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement from the EU "We are ready to engage in meaningful dialogue."

Plastics Europe urged caution in a response.

“The imposition of tariffs, particularly on industrial goods such as plastics, will disrupt supply chains, raise costs for businesses and negatively impact consumers on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Virginia Janssens, managing director at Plastics Europe.

Who first came up with the bear-shaped plastic honey packaging?

That's not a simple question.

The operators of Dutch Gold Honey, a Lancaster, Pa.-based honey maker with the associated packaging distribution company Gamber Container Co., long have claimed the bear was dreamed up by founders Ralph and Luella Gamber at the dinner table in 1957. They worked with a California plastics molder to develop the concept that played off the image of the fictional honey-loving bears Winnie the Pooh and Yogi.

"Plastic molding technology was in its early stages, and it was not uncommon for the original bears to leak from the seams at their ears or out of their noses," Dutch Gold Honey notes on its website.

Private equity company New Water Capital Partners II LP repeated the story in announcing its acquisition of Dutch Gold and its related businesses on March 3.

Kansas-based blow molder Container Services Inc. says it was founded, in part, to produce specialty packaging that included bear-shaped honey containers, and it remains a top maker of the bottles. But CSI was founded in 1991, long after the dating for the Dutch Gold story.

The website snackstack.net also has been curious about the origin story and noted in 2023 that the bear containers pre-date the Dutch Gold launch. In fact, there were bear-shaped containers made of other materials on the market as early as 1908. It's worth a read, especially if you need a break from current events.

The high-end real estate enclave of Palm Beach County, Fla., is seeing another big purchase from a plastics industry executive.

In February, PN Editor Don Loepp noted a story on the purchase of a $49.1 million villa in the county by David Frecka, the founder and former CEO of Charter Nex Films Inc.

Now our sister paper Crain's Chicago Business writes that David MacNeil, the owner of the WeatherTech brand — a thermoformer and injection molder of automotive auxiliary items such as floor mats — will pay $55.5 million for a property in the Palm Beach community of Manalapan that sits right next to another property he paid $38.5 million for a year ago. I guess that shows that you can make a lot of money in U.S. manufacturing.