Airbus Tariff: No Hard Surfaces Included
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
WASHINGTON – European producers of natural stone and quartz surfaces get a break from new U.S. President Joe Biden – their products are off the active “Airbus tariff” list for now.
The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) office published a notice Feb. 11 in the Federal Register, the government’s official journal, to freeze the Section 301 tariff list after its latest revision in early January.
The tariffs are a result of a long-standing dispute between the U.S. and European countries over development of large civil aircraft.
“In light of the recent revision,” according to the notice, “the U.S. Trade Representative has agreed with the affected U.S. industry that it is unnecessary at this time to revise the action.
“The U.S. Trade Representative will continue to consider the action taken in this investigation.”
The controversy stretches back to the fall of 2004, when U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. urged the federal government to complain to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over what it saw as subsidies by France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom (as part of the European Economic Community, or EEC) to Airbus Industrie for developing certain types of airliners.
The WTO eventually agreed with the U.S. position concerning subsidies, allowing for retaliatory tariffs on goods shipped to the United States. Because of the expansion of the EEC into the European Union during the course of the WTO complaint, the tariffs would apply to all 27 member countries of the EU.
The original list of products that could be subject to tariffs of 100%, drawn up during the Trump Administration in 2019, included all dimensional natural stone (with the exclusion of marble) and quartz surfaces. None of the materials went on the active list of products subject to tariffs, however.
Most of the products on the latest revised list, issued Jan. 6, are food and apparel items ranging from olives, wine and cheeses to U.K.-made sweaters. Those items are subject to 25% tariffs; meanwhile, aircraft parts imported to service Airbus planes in the United States only have a 15% tariff.
European hard-surface manufacturers aren’t entirely off the hook, according to the last line of the Federal Register notice: “The U.S. Trade Representative will continue to consider the action taken in this investigation.”
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