The British government announced, Thursday March 4, 2021, an agreement with the American administration of Joe Biden to end customs duties on British products, such as Scotch whiskey, imposed under Donald Trump around an old dispute between Airbus to Boeing. Announced on Twitter by UK Foreign Trade Minister Liz Truss, the deal removes the 25% tariffs imposed by Washington on Scotch whiskey, cashmere and other products, and provides for a “de-escalation” in the dispute between the two aircraft manufacturers.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed “fantastic news”. “From Scottish whiskey distilleries to makers of [fromage] Stilton, the US decision to suspend tariffs on certain UK exports today will benefit businesses across the UK, ”he tweeted.
From Scotch whisky distillers to Stilton-makers, the US decision to suspend tariffs on some UK exports today will benefit businesses right across the UK.
Fantastic news as we strengthen the UK-US trading relationship and work to build back better from the pandemic. https://t.co/p5XO8RTA9T
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 4, 2021
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and its American competitor Boeing, and through them the European Union, of which the United Kingdom was then part, and the United States, have been clashing since October 2004 before the WTO on the public aid paid to both groups, deemed illegal. It is the longest and most complicated trade dispute dealt with by the WTO. The United States was authorized in October 2019 to impose taxes on nearly 7.5 billion dollars (6.8 billion euros) of European goods and services imported each year, the heaviest sanction ever imposed by the ‘WTO. Washington has since imposed 25% of certain products imported from the European Union, 15% for Airbus planes.
Hopes for a commercial agreement
This announcement thus concretizes the wish expressed by London to find an agreement in this affair, after the failure of the British government to come to an agreement with the Trump administration. The United Kingdom already made a gesture in December by announcing the abandonment of tariffs imposed on American products in the context of the dispute between Airbus and Boeing, hoping to obtain reciprocity. This decision was to apply from 1is January, once the country has left the single European market and the customs union. The United Kingdom then dissociated itself from the European Union in this matter, since American customs duties are imposed on European products.
After Brexit, the country hopes to strike a broad trade deal with the United States and, after a time considered to conclude in 2020, London is now showing more caution. The new president Joe Biden had, him, cooled the expectations of the United Kingdom in early December by telling the New York Times not wanting to enter into a new trade deal with anyone in the short term, in order to prioritize the US economy.
London wants to take advantage of Brexit to negotiate trade agreements around the world. He snatched an agreement before Christmas with the EU, by far his main trading partner. Previously, the United Kingdom had already announced a trade treaty with Japan and reproduced with many partners on a bilateral basis the agreements it enjoyed as an EU member state.
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