Unfinished with the United Kingdom, the European Union is again demanding a settlement from the United States (U.S.). The EU is calling that they want the U.S. to commit to ending tariffs related to their aircraft next week.
The EU also hopes President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to be in Brussels for a summit early next week, will keep his promise to end the imposition of tariffs on aluminum and steel before December this year.
An EU official, who did not want to be named, reported that the EU was working to ‘push’ the U.S. to agree to trade tariff cuts as was once proposed during the Donald Trump administration.
Yet, so far, there is no “clear sign” that the U.S. will sign any document required by the EU. EU-US relations have begun to deteriorate during the Trump administration when Trump has often criticized the EU and described EU trade practices as China’s.
Trump has imposed $ 7.5 billion in tariffs on European products after the World Trade Organization ruled that the EU had given an unfair subsidy to Airbus. Soon after, the EU also imposed a $ 4 billion tax on U.S. products.
On the other hand, president Trump decided in 2018 to impose a 25% tariff on European steel products and a 10% tariff on aluminum on national security grounds. The EU has retaliated with a first round of tariffs worth 2.8 billion euros ($ 3.4 billion) and another round of 3.6 billion euros is expected to be imposed this month.
However, the EU decided to stop the imposition of second -round tariffs as a sign of goodwill to improve trade relations. If all goes well at the summit then there is hope that US-EU trade relations are getting better.
