US introduces new duties on EU products
23:42
The United States announced the imposition of additional duties on French and German products as part of a long-running dispute over subsidies for civil aircraft manufacturers: the European Airbus consortium and the American Boeing. The tariffs are for airplane parts, some still wines, and French and German grape cognacs and brandy, which will be added to the 2019 taxable product list, said the US Trade Representative's Office (USTR) statement.
The statement said the move was a retaliation for EU-imposed tariffs, which the US administration deems to be unfair.
This decision is another twist in a 16-year trade dispute between the two sides. It concerns subsidies to civil aviation, including the European aviation company Airbus and the American Boeing. The dispute grew during the four-year presidency of Donald Trump, who pursued a protectionist trade policy. The USTR's decision came three weeks before Joe Biden was sworn in. The EU associates hopes of a warming up with the strained trade relations with the US in recent years with the choice of a Democratic Party politician.
"In implementing its tariffs ... the EU used data from a period when trade volumes were drastically reduced due to the terrifying effects of the Covid-19 virus on the global economy. As a result, Europe imposed tariffs on far more products than would have been the case if it had used the normal trading period. While the US explained to the EU the distorting influence of the period it had chosen, the EU refused to change its approach," the USTR statement said.
