The European Commission on Monday said it was putting forward a new list of US goods worth 72 billion euros ($84 billion) that could be targeted by EU levies if tariff talks with Washington fail.

The bloc's trade chief, Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, announced the proposal,"accounting for some 72 billion euros' worth of US imports", at a meeting with EU ministers in Brussels.

The move came after US President Donald Trump threw months of painstaking negotiations with the EU into disarray by threatening to impose tariffs of 30 percent on the bloc's goods if there is no deal by August 1.

EU trade ministers agreed they were still keen to secure an agreement with Washington before that deadline to head off the damaging duties.

But at the same time Brussels is moving to ready potential retaliation if Trump presses ahead with the sweeping tariffs.

"There was a total unified position among the ministers that we should be ready to respond if needed," said Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

The EU has already prepared a separate list of US imports worth 21 billion euros that it is ready to target over earlier tariffs from Trump on steel and aluminium.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen delayed rolling out those measures on Sunday -- a day before they were set to kick in -- as a sign of goodwill towards Washington.

'No taboos'

Before heading into the meeting with EU ministers, Sefcovic warned that if Trump did impose 30-percent tariffs it would make trade"almost impossible" between the two economic giants.

"Practically it prohibits the trade," he said.

EU nations -- some of which export far more to the United States than others -- have sought to stay on the same page over how strong a line to take with Washington in order to get a deal.

France's trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said retaliation plans should be drawn up with"no taboos", adding that the weekend's setback called for a rethink of the bloc's tactics.

"If you hold anything back, you are not strengthening your hand in negotiations," he said at the Brussels talks."Obviously, the situation since Saturday requires us to change our strategy."

Watch moreNew Trump tariffs leave countries scrambling for deal before August 1 deadline

Deals and duties

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has unleashed sweeping stop-start tariffs on allies and competitors alike, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a global economic downturn.

But his administration faces pressure to secure deals with trading partners after promising a flurry of agreements.

So far, US officials have only unveiled two pacts, with Britain and Vietnam, alongside temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties with China.

The EU, alongside dozens of other economies, had been set to see its US tariff level increase from a baseline of 10 percent last Wednesday, but Trump pushed back the deadline to August 1.

The EU tariff is markedly steeper than the 20 percent levy Trump unveiled in April -- but paused initially until mid-July.

Thomas Byrne, the minister for Ireland whose pharmaceutical industry puts it on the front line of Trump's trade war along with industrial powerhouse Germany, called for Europe to"work our hardest" for a deal before August 1.

"That gives us certainty, it protects investments, it protects jobs," he said.