Daily Management Review

US and Europe declare truce in trade war


03/08/2021


The US and European authorities have agreed to end the trade war temporary. They have suspended all customs duties imposed as part of the dispute around Boeing and Airbus, stated the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.



openDemocracy
openDemocracy
According to her, a truce on the results of negotiations with the US President Joe Biden was announced for four months; it concerns both aviation and non-aviation goods. In addition, the parties have expressed their willingness to resolve the dispute definitively, which, the head of the European Commission said, indicates a new stage of partnership.

The conflict between producers of civil aircraft, the largest in the history of all trade disputes in the world, lasted more than 15 years. It started with Boeing - the company complained to the World Trade Organization (WTO) about preferences provided to its competitor by German, French, UK and Spanish authorities. The question was about preferential loans for development and manufacture of new aircraft models, which Airbus had been receiving for dozens of years.

The European company filed a counter claim with similar accusations, and its claim was $1 billion higher. The lawsuits were first decided in 2011, with both claims found to be justified and violations found to have occurred. However, protests and appeals stretched the process almost to the end of the decade.

A final victory in its lawsuit allowed the US to impose duties of 25 per cent on a number of European products in 2019. These included alcoholic beverages, foodstuffs and clothing. In November last year, the EU, following the verdict in the Boeing case, responded with a similar decision.

source: ec.europa.eu