The EU’s new trade chief has told the US to withdraw punitive tariffs on more than $7bn of EU products or prepare to face additional duties on exports to Europe, as he urged a settlement to the two sides’ 15-year dispute over Airbus and Boeing.
Valdis Dombrovskis, who was formally appointed on Wednesday as the EU’s trade commissioner, told the Financial Times that repairing the transatlantic relationship would be a top priority, and that the US should withdraw its Airbus-related tariffs as a confidence-building measure.
The US last year imposed additional duties on $7.5bn of EU products, ranging from French wines to Italian cheeses and German machine tools, after being handed the right to do so by the World Trade Organization. The tariffs responded to what the WTO confirmed were illegal subsidies to European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.
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