EU, US agree to suspend tariffs over Airbus-Boeing disputes

The European Union (EU) and the United States have agreed to suspend the tariffs imposed over the Airbus-Boeing disputes, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday after a phone call with US President Joe Biden.

The EU and the US have agreed to suspend the tariffs imposed over the Airbus-Boeing disputes for an initial period of four months.
The EU and the US have agreed to suspend the tariffs imposed over the Airbus-Boeing disputes for an initial period of four months.

The two leaders agreed to suspend the tariffs, both on aircraft and non-aircraft products, for an initial period of four months, von der Leyen said in a statement.

"We both committed to focusing on resolving our aircraft disputes," she said. "This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic, and a very positive signal for our economic cooperation in the years to come."

The EU put in place countermeasures against the US exports by slapping tariffs on US products worth US$4 billion last November, after the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) authorized the EU to take countermeasures against "illegal subsidies" granted to the US aircraft maker Boeing.

In October 2019, following a similar WTO decision in a parallel case on Airbus subsidies, Washington started to impose retaliatory duties that would affect EU exports worth US$7.5 billion, and the duties remained even after European governments took decisions to ensure full compliance with WTO rules and removed the grounds for the US to maintain the tariffs in July 2020.

Xinhua