It could finally be the epilogue of a sixteen-year-old conflict. The World Trade Organization (WTO) authorized, Tuesday, October 13, the European Union to overtax US imports for 4 billion dollars (3.39 billion euros). A decision that echoes the authorization given by the WTO, a year ago, in the United States, to overtax European products for 7.5 billion dollars.
At the time, it was the subsidies received by Airbus that had been accused. This time, it is the turn of billions of dollars in tax credits from which Boeing has benefited to be sanctioned by the WTO. According to the schedule of the trade gendarme, the decision should be finally approved on October 26. The EU will therefore be able to start imposing its customs duties on October 27.
Since October 2019, it is a Prévert-style list of European manufactured products that are overtaxed by the American authorities. In addition to the Airbus, whose customs tariffs have been raised by 10%, French and Spanish wines, Iberian olive oil, Scotch whiskey, British sheets and blankets, coffee, German knives and machines as well that cheeses from all over Europe bear a 25% surcharge. In retaliation, the EU has already, for months, drawn up a list of American products, valued at $ 20 billion, that it plans to overtax.
One year to make this decision
In addition to the Boeing, also appear in this list the ketchup, the sweet potato or the spare parts of car. On the Airbus side, we do not hesitate to point out that the scale of the WTO decision is very bad news for the US Department of Commerce, which was only counting on a sanction of “A few hundred million dollars” additional taxes. In the entourage of the group, it is emphasized that it is not the amount of the penalties that “Is important, but the fact that the WTO allows the European Union to tax Boeing planes”.
Twelve months during which Washington did not hesitate to tax European products
It must be said that the WTO took its time to decide to sanction the distortion of competition caused by the tax credits from which Boeing has benefited from many American states. The world trade regulatory body allowed a year to pass between these two decisions of October 2019 and October 2020. Twelve months during which Washington did not hesitate to tax European products. However, the two complaints, American, then European, to the WTO were filed with only one day of difference in 2004. In addition to the 4 billion dollars inflicted by the WTO, the EU could add a previous sanction, dating from 2004, $ 4 billion that it had never implemented.
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