No New US Tariffs on Spanish Olive Oil Imports

The United States Trade Representative decided not to add new tariffs to Spanish packaged and bulk olive oil imports. The USTR will revise the list once again in August.

By Daniel Dawson
Feb. 17, 2020 07:57 UTC
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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.



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