At the first EU-US summit since 2014, the parties reached an agreement on a 5-year "truce" in the 17-year-long dispute over Airbus and Boeing.
"This statement opens the way to a solution to an issue that has hitherto been an obstacle in relations between the United States and the European Union," Katherine Tai, US Trade Representative, assessed.
"Instead of competing with our closest ally, we finally unite to tackle common challenges," she said.
The dispute, which has been ongoing since 2004, is the longest one in the World Trade Organization (WTO) forum. The case concerned subsidizing the European Airbus and the American Boeing.
In 2019, WHO arbitrators allowed the US to impose punitive tariffs on some European products, including French cheeses, due to the continued subsidization of Airbus by EU countries. The total value of goods subject to customs duties (about $7.5 billion per year) was the highest in the history of the WHO. The duties were mainly aimed at four countries that financially support Airbus - France, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain.
In response to this step, in November 2020 the European Union decided to impose customs duties on US goods and services worth up to $4 billion in connection with illegal state aid to Boeing. So far, businesses in the US and the EU have had to pay a total of €3.3 billion in additional duties as a result of these decisions, indicates the Reuters agency.