U.S., EU agree to suspend tariffs

Duties on many goods have targeted $11.5B in trans-atlantic trade.

The European Union and the U.S. agreed to suspend tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s products, easing a 17-year trans-atlantic dispute over illegal aid to the world’s biggest aircraft makers.

President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to the move on a call Friday, the commission said in a statement.

The fight over aid to Airbus and Boeing has resulted in duties — authorized by the World Trade Organization — that target a combined $11.5 billion in trans-atlantic trade and affect a range of industrial, agricultural and consumer goods. The EU hit $4 billion of American products in November, about a year after the Trump administration ignored European pleas to refrain from imposing levies on $7.5 billion of imports from the bloc.

Through its duties, the U.S. has targeted key European products like French wine and Spanish olives, while Europe has hit U.S. tractors, nuts and fruit.

Airbus said it welcomed the decision. The company “supports all necessary actions to create a level playing field and continues to support a negotiated settlement of this long-standing dispute to avoid lose-lose tariffs,” it said in a statement.

On Thursday, the U.S. said it will suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.K. products caught up in the aircraft-subsidy dispute in a boost for post-brexit Britain’s trade agenda.

The four-month suspension will enable a “focus on negotiating a balanced settlement to the disputes,” the U.K. government said. The decision means goods like Scotch whisky, biscuits and clotted cream can be imported to the U.S. from Britain without being subject to an additional 25% duty.