PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, November 18th 2020 – The European Union is imposing customs tariffs in the Boeing case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in response to the American surtaxes, notably on wine, which European winegrowers have been paying since 18 October 2019.
This is a new episode that has just been played out in the 16-year-old dispute between Boeing and Airbus concerning subsidies and loans. After having authorised the United States to overtax European products, including wine, a year ago, the WTO has just authorised Brussels on 26 October 2020 to tax American products to the tune of 4 billion dollars because of the abusive support to Boeing. Until now, the Trump administration has always been reluctant to make any attempt to appease the situation. The European Union has therefore decided to impose additional customs duties of 15 points on medium and large aircraft and 25 points on a range of agricultural, agri-food and industrial goods. These measures came into force on Tuesday 10 November.
A few days after Joe Biden’s victory in the elections, Brussels wants to encourage Washington to find an amicable settlement to the ongoing disputes. « We are ready to suspend our measures at any time if the United States, for its part, totally suspends its own measures, and we hope to be able to find a negotiated solution as soon as possible. We reaffirm that the transatlantic trade relationship is essential for our economy, and more generally we wish to restore balanced and peaceful trade relations between the European Union and the United States », said Brussels.
The AREV supports the Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Mr Valdis Dombrovskis n maintaining a close and constructive dialogue with the American Trade Representative in order to find as quickly as possible a favourable outcome to the imposed tariffs by the American administration on our wines for more than a year.