WTO license for US punitive tariffs: The Transatlantic Cheese War

The government of Donald Trump has never made a secret of their aversion to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The US President does not like international bodies anyway, and certainly not the WTO. Several times he threatened to leave.

Maybe he'll think twice about it. On Wednesday, the referees in Geneva Trump have awarded a victory that comes in the face of domestic impeachment disputes very convenient: With the blessing of the WTO, the US may because of improper subsidies of Europeans for Airbus punitive tariffs on imports in the volume of 7.5 billion dollars impose.

The US administration has been thoroughly prepared for this moment of triumph: the trade commissioner Robert Lighthizer has collected on two lists, which should be really painful on the other side of the Atlantic. The tariffs could not only hit aircraft, helicopters and production parts from Airbus founding states Frankeich, Germany, Spain and Great Britain.

The US also reserves the right to tax products from other EU Member States at will, such as champagne from France, cheese from Italy, olives from Spain or Vienna sausages and steak knives from Germany. The range chosen by Lighthizer more than triples the $ 25 billion sum released by the WTO.

Charter of the WTO

Trump has the leeway to kujonieren the trading partners to the gusto. So he threatened to make French wine more expensive in the past when he revolted about France's digital tax. The fact that many enjoyment-oriented Americans, who load the shopping cart with Côtes du Rhône or Bordeaux in the suburbs of Total Wine & More, does not challenge the alcohol-abstinent president: "I've always preferred American wines rather than French - even if I do not drink wine, "he explained. "I just like what they look like."

For the time being, however, the WTO's charter has particularly upset the Italians, whose four sacred P's have been targeted by the US Trade Representative: Parmesan, Pecorino, Provolone and Provoletti. So far, the Americans are the world's second largest importers of Parmigiano. The tariffs would be "a threat to jobs, businesses, families and entire regions," warns Italian Minister of Agriculture Teresa Bellanova.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was hit by the Italian temperament on his visit to Rome this week. A journalist stormed his photo opportunity with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to give him a giant piece of Parmigiano-Reggiano for his president. You may have missed that Trump only needs factory-made American Cheese sliced ​​for the cheeseburger diet.

But in fact not all Americans have an appetite for the cheesy rival products of the Italians from Wisconsin. He supports the punitive tariffs against the "bad guys who have illegally subsidized Airbus," former Republican Congressman Lou Barletta said, "But Italy was not one of them." The politician with Italian ancestors has joined forces with like-minded importers and manufacturers to form the American Italian Food Coalition. His argument: "What is America without pasta?"

Individual products could hit 100 percent

Others fear that the toll of tariffs will pay the Americans. The Airbus assembly plant in Alabama is importing aircraft fuselages, wings and landing gears to produce the A320. All these parts are on the pen list.

In a letter to the Trade Commissioner, 34 MPs from both parties pleaded for a compromise with the EU, according to the news portal Politico. If duties have already been imposed, please do not ask for existing orders, they asked. Because the "would only charge US airlines (the buyers of the machines), their workers and their customers."

Nevertheless, not many expect that Trump can convince himself of the arguments. The government in Washington has suggested that it could hit individual products with surcharges of 100 percent.

However, the transatlantic aviation-subsidy war, which has lasted 15 years, is far from over. Next, the WTO will determine the extent to which the EU may impose tariffs on America for its aid to Boeing. The fact that the Trump administration made its first victory is simply because the Europeans did not complain later. Brussels also has a retaliatory list for US products worth $ 12 billion in the drawer. If the US enforces the tariffs, "this will push the EU into a situation where we have no option but to do the same," threatened EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström on Wednesday.

Until then, Trump can feel like a brilliant winner. "By the time I arrived, we've lost all cases," he scolded supporters in Pennsylvania in August. His threat of withdrawal, however, made the WTO docile. "They understand, so give us victories."