TRUMP HAILS TRADE VICTORY
President Donald Trump hailed a nice victory after the United States got the green light to place tariffs on European Union goods in a dispute over EU aircraft subsidies.
The decision by the World Trade Organization left Scottish whisky makers, Spanish winemakers and French cheesemakers fuming as the U.S. tariffs targeted products from countries in the Airbus consortium.
Engineers in Germany worried that the dispute over subsidies granted to the European planemaker was leading to “a table tennis match” over trans-Atlantic tariffs, and France and Germany signalled retaliatory moves by the EU.
The WTO decision gave the United States the go-ahead to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of EU goods annually in the long-running case. The global trade watchdog will hold a special meeting of its Dispute Settlement Body on Oct. 14 to formally adopt the decision.
The dispute darkens a global economic outlook that has already been dimmed by a U.S.-China trade war now in its second year. Washington and Beijing have imposed tariffs on each other’s goods worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Trump wrote on Twitter the EU “has for many years treated the USA very badly on Trade due to Tariffs, Trade Barriers, and more. This case going on for years, a nice victory!”
Washington said that, after 15 years of litigation, it would impose 10% tariffs on Airbus planes, a move that could hurt orders by U.S. airlines, and 25% duties on French wine, Scotch and Irish whiskies, and cheese from across the Continent.
The size and scope of the tariffs were reduced considerably from a $25 billion list floated by Washington this year that included helicopters, major aircraft components, seafood and luxury goods.
Published: by Radio NewsHub