Posted Feb 15 2020 at 10.56 amUpdated Feb 15. 2020 at 4:36 p.m.
In early October last year, Airbus could think that it had escaped the worst. The United States then decided to impose only on its planes
10% customs surcharge.
Tired, Friday, they announced raising customs duties to 15% on aircraft imported from Europe by the competing aircraft manufacturer Boeing. A decision that will take effect on March 18.
This Saturday, Airbus said “deeply regret” the implementation of this measure, saying it only “increases trade tensions between Europe and the United States”. At the same time, the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS), faced with the American decision to maintain at 25% the additional customs duties on their products within the framework of American-European aeronautical disputes, calls for the creation of a compensation fund of 300 million euros. It figures at 17.5% the decline in exports of French wines for the last quarter of 2019 alone, which would represent a loss of turnover of more than 20%.
American reprisals for subsidies to Airbus
Since October, in retaliation for subsidies to the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the US government has imposed punitive customs tariffs on $ 7.5 billion of imported products (including wine, cheese, coffee, olives and anoraks) 25% height, except for airplanes, which were taxed at 10%. At the same time, the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS)
In addition to the 15-year-old conflict between Airbus and Boeing through their states, trade tensions between Washington and Brussels have been added. Suddenly, with each new decision, the different sectors concerned hold their breath, in the hope that their category will be removed from the list, and in the fear that the tariffs will be increased. “The spirit drinks industry on both sides of the Atlantic has suffered enough,” reacted Friday, the Distilled Spirits Council, an American trade association. She calls on the authorities to withdraw the 25% taxes on American whiskeys on the EU side, and the 25% taxes on liquors imported from 5 European countries, believing that they penalize the economy of the United States and threaten jobs.
Instrument of negotiation
But Donald Trump also uses these taxes as a negotiating tool. The American president and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, indeed announced at the end of January, after a meeting in Davos (Switzerland), their will to relaunch the transatlantic commercial building site and to conclude an agreement in the coming weeks.
But for now,
negotiations were unsuccessful
and relations remain tense, while the host of the White House still brandishes the threat of taxing imports of European cars, which shakes German manufacturers in particular.
On Monday, he said it was time to “very seriously” negotiate a trade agreement with the European Union. He wants EU member countries to open up their markets more to American products, especially agricultural products. Recently, his administration has threatened to overtax “up to 100%” the equivalent of $ 2.4 billion in French products. Something to thrill producers, but also American importers of French wine, who, in a letter to the USTR, estimated from 11,200 to 78,600 job losses in the United States if these threats were carried out.
AFP source
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