In June 2021, the US, the EU, and the UK reached an agreement in the Boeing-Airbus dispute. As a result, the additional tariffs have been suspended for five years since July 2021.
The five-year period began on July 11, 2021 for the EU and on July 4, 2021 for the UK.
On March 5, 2021, the EU and the United States conceded in the WTO trade dispute and suspended all punitive tariffs imposed on Boeing and Airbus due to illegal subsidies, initially for a limited period of four months. During the June 15, 2021 summit, the EU and US have now agreed to an extended five-year “truce” in the 17-year dispute.
Two days later, the agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom was also announced. The separate solution had become necessary due to the withdrawal of the British from the EU.
On July 8, the EU then published in the Official Journal of the European Union the Suspension of additional tariffs for the next five years. The US and the EU want to use the time to find a lasting solution. The two sides also agreed on an Understanding on a cooperative framework for Large Civil Aircraft.
The rapprochement between the US and the EU should also be seen in the light of the strengthening Chinese market. After all, China hopes to obtain approval from the Chinese regulatory authorities for the C919 commercial aircraft from the state-owned manufacturer Commercial Corporation of China before the end of 2021.
Additional tariffs were imposed on steel and aluminum imports from Europe since 2018, and on steel and aluminum derivatives since February 2020. Since October 2020, the US Department of Commerce also imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 51.18 % on aluminum sheets. One of the most extensive anti-dumping investigations clearly showed in April 2021: The “final dumping rates” are now at 242.8 % for one German company and 49.4 % for all others. Other countries affected include Brazil, Egypt, India.
However, there are also some positive developments in trade relations in these sectors: In May 2021, the trading partners agreed to jointly find a way out of the overproduction of steel and aluminum products before the end of 2021 without further straining the bilateral trade relationship.
Current US tariff rates are made available in the EU Access2Markets database. To search, enter the six-digit commodity code with Germany as the country of origin and the United States as country of destination directly on the home page.
