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- In the trade dispute over US government subsidies to aircraft maker Boeing, the European Union is authorized to impose punitive tariffs of nearly $ 4 billion on the US.
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) announced in Geneva.
- Therefore, the WTO remained well below the EU’s requirements.
The arbitrators had claimed $ 12 billion in damages, in conversation then dropped to $ 8.6 billion because the European Airbus group had been at a disadvantage for years by US state aid to competitor Boeing.
The ruling is the preliminary line of the dispute between the United States and the EU, which has lasted more than 15 years. An appeal process is excluded. The EU has already threatened punitive tariffs on game consoles, ketchup and other products.
WTO mediators had already concluded in March 2019 that the US had not stopped the government aid to Boeing that it had complained about years earlier.
The United States also imposed punitive tariffs
The decision of the WTO arbitrators came a year after they had made the same decision with the opposite sign, so to speak: at that time, they allowed the United States to impose punitive tariffs on European products worth 7.5 billion dollars. yearly. This is due to government support for the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.
The United States implemented the ruling immediately: it made the import of cheese, butter and wine and many other products from Europe more expensive, as well as components for the aviation industry. Punitive tariffs range from 15 to 25 percent. They mainly punished the countries that paid subsidies to Airbus: Germany, France, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The winning party in a trade dispute can impose punitive tariffs until the losing party has eliminated the subsidies in question. The EU has been emphasizing for months that all payments to Airbus have been suspended and that punitive tariffs must be stopped.
She has called for a new evaluation of the arbitrators, but the motion does not advance in the crisis-ridden WTO. The United States also said that the subsidies to Boeing they complained about no longer existed.
