Recent News

The United States Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (USTR) has announced that it will not increase the 25-per­cent tar­iff cur­rently in force on some pack­aged olive oil imports from Spain. The USTR will also not impose any new tar­iffs on bulk Span­ish olive oil imports.

“As of this time, the Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive has decided not to increase the rate of addi­tional duties above the addi­tional 25 per­cent cur­rently being applied to non-air­craft prod­ucts,” Joseph Bar­loon, the gen­eral coun­sel of the USTR, said.

After win­ning a rul­ing at the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion (WTO) about ille­gal sub­si­dies pro­vided by sev­eral Euro­pean nations to the air­craft man­u­fac­turer, Air­bus, the U.S. imposed $7.5 bil­lion of tar­iffs on a vari­ety of man­u­fac­tur­ing and agri­cul­tural goods from Spain, France, Ger­many and the United King­dom.

In Decem­ber, two months after the tar­iffs came into force, the USTR began to review the list, look­ing at the pos­si­bil­ity of adding or remov­ing some items as well as increas­ing the tar­iff bur­den on exist­ing items.

In May or June, the WTO is expected to make a rul­ing on a sim­i­lar case that has been brought by the Euro­pean Union against U.S.-based air­craft man­u­fac­turer, Boe­ing, also for alleged ille­gal sub­si­dies.

Based on the WTO’s rul­ing in this case, the E.U. may be allowed to impose its own tar­iffs on U.S. goods, which would lead the USTR to once again open up the cur­rent tar­iff list for revi­sion.

“The U.S. Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive has also deter­mined that going for­ward, the action may be revised as appro­pri­ate imme­di­ately upon any E.U. impo­si­tion of addi­tional duties on U.S. prod­ucts in con­nec­tion with the Large Civil Air­craft dis­pute or with the E.U.’s WTO chal­lenge to the alleged sub­si­diza­tion of U.S. large civil air­craft,” Bar­loon said.

• United States Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive