German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas urged the EU to take retaliatory measures if the US authorities impose tariffs on goods and services of the EU countries.
German FM says EU will retaliate for US tariffs
STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 4, ARTSAKHPRESS: In an interview with Funke media group, he said that the EU must now respond and, after the approval of the WTO [World Trade Organization], perhaps introduce penalties on its part, TASS reported.
According to him, the US rejected the EU’s offer to come to a mutually acceptable solution and instead embarked on a path of confrontation.
The is wrong, because the price will be paid by workers and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic, the FM noted adding that Europe, as before, is ready to work out with the US general rules for subsidizing the aircraft industry.
According to him, there is still a chance to prevent further damage to the global economy. After all, everyone benefits from open and fair trade.
As the American CNBC channel reported on Wednesday referring to the apparatus of the US representative at trade talks, the US authorities intend to introduce tariffs on passenger aircraft and agricultural products from EU countries amid the WTO arbitration decision. Tariffs for aircraft will be 10%, for a number of items of agricultural products and some other goods - 25%. They will enter into force on October 18.
Earlier on Wednesday, the WTO arbitration allowed the US to impose tariffs on goods and services of the EU countries by almost $ 7.5 billion due to the fact that the EU did not comply with the decisions taken by the organization regarding subsidies to Airbus. The EU Airbus subsidies litigation has been ongoing since 2004. Washington complained about the practice of subsidizing this company from the UK, Germany, Spain and France. After this, a series of litigation proceedings took place.
The EU insists that it brought the subsidy situation into line with WTO rules. However, in May 2018, the WTO appeals body ruled in favor of the US.
