This is yet another twist in the Airbus/Boeing conflict saga. The Office of the US Trade Representative announced on 30 December 2020 that additional tariffs will be imposed on European products. They concern aeronautical spare parts, non-sparkling wines and cognacs. They will enter into force on 12 January. This decision comes after the European retaliatory measures taken in November (see EUROPE 12598/3).
The EU had been given the go-ahead by the WTO to put in place an additional 4 billion dollars (3.4 billion euros) in customs duties in connection with the dispute over State aid to Boeing.
The US administration accuses the EU of cheating on the calculation method for valuing products affected by tariffs and of aiming for a larger volume. In an explanatory note, the Office of the US Trade Representative states that the EU has refused to settle this issue.
The European Commission, for its part, denounced a “unilateral decision” and a “desire to escalate” the conflict on the part of the United States. The French Ministers of Economy, Agriculture, Trade and Transport, Bruno Le Maire, Julien Denormandie, Franck Riester and Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, said in a joint statement that the new list of products subject to sanctions would drive the United States to exceed the 7.5 billion dollars authorised by the WTO in 2019.
On the European Parliament side, Trade Committee Chair Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) is calling for EU countermeasures. For French MEP Anne Sander (EPP), “the European Commission should study the establishment of a fund to compensate for losses suffered by the agricultural sectors”, as set out in a resolution adopted by Parliament in November 2019. She also asks the European Commission to report on the situation to Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture in the coming weeks. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)