The dispute between the United States and the European Union over state aid from which Airbus and Boeing have benefited is not ending. The Trump administration drew, to everyone’s surprise, on December 30, 2020, new sanctions, worth 1 billion euros, which will hit, in the form of customs duties, German and French products, in response to the surcharges introduced by the European Union on November 9, 2020, for an amount of 4 billion euros. These were already a response to a first round of 7.5 billion euros in customs duties decided by the United States, but authorized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and affecting various products. Airbus, wines, knives, sheets and machinery suffered significant surcharges, from 15% to 25% …
The European Commission reacted by ” regretting “ these new product additions to the US retaliation list. This movement “Unilateral US disrupts ongoing negotiations between the Commission and the office of the US trade representative”, we say in Brussels.
This decision of the Trump administration, a few days before the end of his mandate, does not come by chance. “The current administration is doing everything, really everything, to make life complicated for Joe Biden’s future team, analyzes Michaël Hahn, director of the Institute of International Economic Law, in Geneva. And then Donald Trump sends a targeted message to those who, from his point of view, have betrayed him. ” Germany and France will be the two countries affected by these surcharges, starting with the wine and Cognac sectors.
“Unfriendly decision”
In Paris, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, and Franck Riester, Minister for Trade, condemned this decision by the United States in a joint press release. These sanctions will make “To cause unacceptable damage to European exporters, in particular to our producers of wines and spirits as well as to the aeronautics sector”. According to the French government, this “Unfriendly decision” come “Unilaterally break off the discussions” in progress for fifteen years to find a solution to this conflict.
This commercial dispute has been going on since 2004. At issue: the subsidies paid by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain to Airbus for the development of its various planes. For the United States, this state aid constituted distortions of competition and was not compatible with WTO rules. On the European side, Boeing was criticized for being favored by several states in the United States, through tax credits. The WTO Dispute Settlement Body ruled in favor of both parties, authorizing them, in 2019, then in 2020, to impose sanctions.
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