The US government has said that new tariffs on aircraft parts and other products from France and Germany will take effect on Tuesday.
In a statement on Monday, the Customs and Border Protection said that it will start collecting an additional 15 percent duties on certain parts of large civil aircraft from France and Germany, and 25 percent duties on other products from the two countries, reports Xinhua news agency.
“The revisions to the listed products are effective for imports, or warehouse withdrawals for consumption, on or after 12.01 a.m. January 12, 2021,” the statement said.
The statement came after the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced last month that it would modify tariffs on certain products imported from the European Union (EU) in a long-time dispute over aircraft subsidies.
Last week, the USTR’s Office announced that it would impose an additional 15 percent duties on aircraft parts, including fuselages and wing assemblies, and 25 percent duties on wines, of France and Germany.
Washington started to impose additional tariffs on a wide range of European products worth $7.5 billion in October 2019, following a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling on subsidies to the EU aircraft Airbus.
Following a similar WTO decision on subsidies to the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the EU slapped additional tariffs on American products worth $4 billion in November 2020.
However, the USTR’s Office claimed that the EU imposed tariffs on “substantially more products than would have been covered” as it used trade data from a period in which trade volumes had been drastically reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then Washington decided to impose new tariffs on certain products from France and Germany. The US-EU aircraft subsidy dispute has dragged on for 16 years.
In 2004, the US filed a case with the WTO, accusing the EU of providing illegal subsidies to Airbus in various forms. The EU has since filed a similar case over allegedly illegal US subsidies to Boeing.
The WTO has ruled that both the US and the EU have provided illegal subsidies for their respective airlines. Both the US and the EU have been allowed to impose tariffs on a certain amount of goods imported from the other.
