By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union and the United States are working intensively to resolve their dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers and should be able to do so by July, the EU’s trade chief said on Thursday.
Both sides agreed in March to suspend tariffs imposed on billions of imports in their 16-year-old dispute at the World Trade Organization over subsidies for planemakers Airbus and Boeing.
The suspension runs until July 10, with tariffs re-applying on July 11 if there is no solution.
“We had intensive and broad discussions on this topic with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai last week and so during today’s video conference she confirmed this timeline,” European Commission vice president Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference.
“The work is advancing so I would say this timeline is realistic. Of course it requires effort from both sides.”
Dombrovskis spoke after a meeting of EU trade ministers, which Tai addressed, days after the European Union declared a partial truce in a three-year dispute over U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium.
“All in all, it’s now more than 100 days since the Biden administration entered office and we have seen many positive developments and much more active engagement,” Dombrovskis said.
The Commission, which oversees EU trade policy, said on Monday it would not impose retaliatory tariffs on more U.S. products.
Dombrovskis said U.S. metals tariffs and the EU’s initial retaliatory duties from 2018 should be removed as soon as possible, and in any case by the end of the year. He said both the EU and the United State were working on this timeline.
Separately, 12 EU countries including Germany, called for an extension of steel “safeguard” quotas beyond their expiry at the end of June to protect industry from a flood of imports.
Dombrovskis said the Commission should present a proposal in early June, adding there was a difficult balance to be made between steel-making and steel-consuming industries.
“If we extend beyond three years, as would be the case, we open ourselves to legal retaliation by third countries,” he continued.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; additional reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Alexandra Hudson)
