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Suspension of Tariffs Agreed by the U.S. and E.U. Comes into Effect

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The tariffs that the United States and the European Union (EU) had imposed on each other over their dispute on subsidies to Boeing and Airbus were officially suspended on Thursday, after both sides agreed last week to stop applying them for an initial period of four months.

“Tariffs for Airbus-Boeing are now suspended,” European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis announced on Twitter, calling it “positive news for exporters on both sides of the Atlantic.”

The “next step,” the European trade official said, is to “find solutions on future subsidies to the aviation sector.”

The EU and the U.S. agreed last Friday to suspend these tariffs for an initial period of four months, while working towards a permanent solution, during a telephone call between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the new U.S. President, Joe Biden.

During the term of his predecessor, Donald Trump, Washington imposed tariffs of $7.5 billion (about €6.2 billion) on the EU in 2019 for illegal aid granted by the EU to Airbus, after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of it in the dispute that the two faced before that body.

These tariffs mainly affected imports of products such as olive oil, table olives, wine and cheese from Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The EU responded in 2020 by imposing tariffs on imports from the United States of $4 billion (about 3.3 billion euros), when the WTO upheld its allegations that Washington had granted illegal aid to Boeing.

Specifically, Brussels imposed tariffs of 15% on aircraft imports and 25% on products such as spirits, orange juice, motorcycles and tractors.

After a Trump mandate marked by the imposition of tariffs on the EU, Brussels had proposed, after Biden’s arrival, to reach an agreement with the United States on the administration of these tariffs, as well as to make progress in other areas that they consider to be of common interest in trade matters, such as the reform of the WTO.

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