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