Washington announced Wednesday that it was maintaining the full amount of punitive taxes on European products in the context of a transatlantic aviation dispute, but nevertheless modified the list of products covered. A tactic otherwise called carousel torture, which consists of rotating this list every six months, as US law allows, in order to impose sanctions on several sectors and countries without increasing the total amount.
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This is the latest episode in the dispute between the United States and the EU over a trade dispute dating from October 2004 over public aid to European aircraft manufacturers Airbus and American Boeing.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) last year authorized Washington to impose these taxes on nearly 7.5 billion dollars (6.3 billion euros) of European goods and services imported each year, sanctioning the heaviest ever imposed by the WTO. Since then, Washington has imposed punitive tariffs on certain imports from the European Union such as wine, cheese and olives, up to 25%. Customs taxes of 10% on Airbus planes were raised in March to 15% in March.
List changed on September 1
Washington on Wednesday kept the amount of affected goods and services at $ 7.5 billion, with rates unchanged of 15% for aeronautics and 25% for the rest, including French, German, Spanish and British whiskeys. . The list of goods concerned has however been modified, with the withdrawal as of September 1 of certain products from Greece and the United Kingdom and the addition for an equivalent amount of products from France and Germany.
In July, Airbus announced that it had been "fully compliant " with WTO rules after agreeing with the Spanish and French governments to pay higher interest on the repayable advances made by Paris and Madrid during the launch of the A350 long-haul aircraft program. The EU then asserted that this proposal should lead the United States to “ immediately ” lift its trade retaliation decided on the basis of this conflict.
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But Washington on Wednesday considered the actions taken by the EU insufficient, while showing itself open to the search for a solution. “ As a result, the United States will begin a new process with the EU to try to get an agreement to remedy the practices that have harmed the American aviation industry and its workers and to assure the companies Americans to be placed on an equal footing, ”said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
This 16-year-long dispute is the longest and most complicated trade dispute dealt with by the WTO.
