The EU regrets imposition of US tariffs

The European Union has regretted on Thursday that the United States has confirmed that it will apply additional tariffs on imports from Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom as of October 18 for subsidies granted to Airbus, after yesterday obtaining authorization from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to do so.

“The EU regrets that the United States seems to have made the decision to impose additional tariffs on EU exports”, Commerce Executive spokesman Daniel Rosario said in a press conference.

“It is a movement that will primarily hit US consumers and businesses and makes efforts towards a negotiated agreement more difficult,” he said

The United States Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, recently announced that “the US will begin to apply the WTO-approved tariffs to certain EU goods as of October 18,” stating that “most of the tariffs shall apply to imports from France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, the four countries responsible for illegal subsidies.”

In this regard, the US official said that, although the US territory has the authorization to tax up to 100% of the products affected, the increase in tariffs applied as of October 18 will be 10% in the case of civil aviation products and 25% for agricultural products and other affected imports.

“The US has the authority to increase tariffs at any time or change the affected products”, said Lighthizer, who has expressed his willingness to enter into negotiations with the European Union to solve this problem in a way that benefits American workers.

K. Tovar

Source: La Vanguardia