`Europe and U.S. Close to Deal to End Airbus-Boeing Dispute - Olive Oil Times

Europe and U.S. Close to Deal to End Airbus-Boeing Dispute

By Daniel Dawson
Jun. 14, 2021 21:41 UTC

After two days of inten­sive nego­ti­a­tions in Brussels, the United States and European Union are poised to resolve the near-two-decade dis­pute over ille­gal sub­si­dies to their respec­tive air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers.

Late on Monday night, diplo­mats told the Financial Times that the two sides were close to con­firm­ing a deal on sub­sidy rules for Airbus and Boeing.” The deal is set to be final­ized on Tuesday as President Joe Biden vis­its Brussels for the first time.

The European Union is cur­rently seek­ing approval from the three coun­tries in which Airbus is based: France, Germany and Spain.

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Barring any last-minute objec­tions, the deal would end the longest run­ning dis­pute in World Trade Organization (WTO) his­tory and per­ma­nently elim­i­nate tar­iffs on con­sumer goods head­ing from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

The news of the poten­tial elim­i­na­tion of tar­iffs will come as wel­come relief to the Spanish olive oil sec­tor and the French and Spanish table olive sec­tors.

In October 2019, the WTO approved a $7.5‑billion pack­age of U.S. tar­iffs on European imports after the inter­na­tional trade body found the E.U. to be pro­vid­ing ille­gal sub­si­dies to Airbus.

Packaged Spanish olive oil and some green table olives from both France and Spain were hit with 25-per­cent tar­iffs, which led to dras­tic reduc­tions in exports of both.

Cooperativas Agro-ali­men­ta­rias, Spain’s lead­ing agri­cul­tural coop­er­a­tive, said that bot­tled olive oil exports to the United States decreased by 80 per­cent in 2020 com­pared to 2019, as a result of the tar­iffs.

The Spanish Association of Table Olive Exporters and Producers (Asemesa) said that green table olive exports to the U.S. fell by 25 per­cent over the same time period.

One year later, the WTO approved a $4‑billion pack­age of E.U. tar­iffs on American imports after it said the U.S. was also pro­vid­ing ille­gal sub­si­dies to Boeing.

The news of the poten­tial deal is the lat­est step in a series of de-esca­la­tions, which both the Spanish gov­ern­ment, olive oil and table olive indus­tries have called for in recent months, hop­ing to take advan­tage of renewed good­will to strengthen trade and secu­rity bonds on both sides of the Atlantic.

If the deal comes to fruition, it will be announced this week at a joint press con­fer­ence between Biden and the European coun­ter­parts.



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