FILE PHOTO: The Airbus logo is pictured at Airbus headquarters in Blagnac near Toulouse, France, March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Trade Representative on Monday proposed a list of European Union products ranging from large commercial aircraft and parts to dairy products and wine on which to slap tariffs as retaliation for European aircraft subsidies.
With the move, the USTR said it was kicking off the process for retaliation against over $11 billion worth of damage from EU subsidies to Airbus that the World Trade Organization has found cause “adverse effects” to the United States.
The United States and European Union have long been at odds over the subsidies, which the U.S. government brought to the WTO in 2004. The EU has left most of those supports unchanged and launched additional aid since the challenge, USTR said.
“Our ultimate goal is to reach an agreement with the EU to end all WTO-inconsistent subsidies to large civil aircraft. When the EU ends these harmful subsidies, the additional U.S. duties imposed in response can be lifted,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in the statement.
USTR said it would announce a final product list after a WTO arbiter issues its report on the value of countermeasures.
Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sandra Maler
