The United States president Donald Trump has threatened to impose higher tariffs on import of French wines and cheese in addition to a number of other goods such as includes aircraft and motorcycles. The US administration could impose tariffs on all of the goods potentially sometime later this year and the total worth of the imported goods would be about $11 billion.
Gthat amount however would be just about 1/30th of total value of the good imported from China that have been subjected to higher tariffs in the US-China trade war. However the difference is that this smaller amount of goods that could be come under a tariff regime, has the potential of disrupting transatlantic trade. According to warnings from European officials on Tuesday, this could be a serious problem even though the amount worth off good threatened to be brought under a tariff regimen would be less than $11 billion. Trade between the US and Europe has already come under pressure after the US imposed sanctions last year on steel and aluminium from Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was the last world leader to target European food when a number of goods — which included the beloved French cheese — from Europe and other Western countries were banned by him in 2014. That action was taken by Putin to as a reaction against the Western sanctions against the annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine by Putin’s Russia. At that point in time, the argument put forward by Russian officials was that they would be able to rediscover their own food and identity because of the import ban.
However, the French have a greater business interest in the American market compared to the Russian market.
On Tuesday, the Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that both the countries were attempting “to reach a friendly agreement,” despite the European Union contemplating a retaliation to the threat. However, both the sides would essentially require the resolution of an issue that has been a bone of contention between the two side for more than a decade now – the alleged EU. subsidy for Airbus which is the principal global rivals for US plane maker Boeing.
According to analysts, fiercer responses in Europe to the threat from Trump would have been typically triggered earlier. However, they say, that the EU leaders now realise that the threats from Trump are not empty ones and that it might not be possible for the EU to match the determination of Trump to gain a leverage in case of a serious trade conflict.
On earlier occasions, German cars and other exports had been threatened by Trump which had raised concerns among the investors in German companies.
One of the reasons that Trump is targeting French wine is that even though both the countries produce wine of similar quality, US breweries find it very hard to crack the French market because of regulations such as big tariffs while there are very low non-trade barriers in eth US for French wine and the tariffs are also very low.
(Source:www.washingtonpost.com)
Gthat amount however would be just about 1/30th of total value of the good imported from China that have been subjected to higher tariffs in the US-China trade war. However the difference is that this smaller amount of goods that could be come under a tariff regime, has the potential of disrupting transatlantic trade. According to warnings from European officials on Tuesday, this could be a serious problem even though the amount worth off good threatened to be brought under a tariff regimen would be less than $11 billion. Trade between the US and Europe has already come under pressure after the US imposed sanctions last year on steel and aluminium from Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was the last world leader to target European food when a number of goods — which included the beloved French cheese — from Europe and other Western countries were banned by him in 2014. That action was taken by Putin to as a reaction against the Western sanctions against the annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine by Putin’s Russia. At that point in time, the argument put forward by Russian officials was that they would be able to rediscover their own food and identity because of the import ban.
However, the French have a greater business interest in the American market compared to the Russian market.
On Tuesday, the Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that both the countries were attempting “to reach a friendly agreement,” despite the European Union contemplating a retaliation to the threat. However, both the sides would essentially require the resolution of an issue that has been a bone of contention between the two side for more than a decade now – the alleged EU. subsidy for Airbus which is the principal global rivals for US plane maker Boeing.
According to analysts, fiercer responses in Europe to the threat from Trump would have been typically triggered earlier. However, they say, that the EU leaders now realise that the threats from Trump are not empty ones and that it might not be possible for the EU to match the determination of Trump to gain a leverage in case of a serious trade conflict.
On earlier occasions, German cars and other exports had been threatened by Trump which had raised concerns among the investors in German companies.
One of the reasons that Trump is targeting French wine is that even though both the countries produce wine of similar quality, US breweries find it very hard to crack the French market because of regulations such as big tariffs while there are very low non-trade barriers in eth US for French wine and the tariffs are also very low.
(Source:www.washingtonpost.com)
