UK said US had agreed to jointly de-escalate the longstanding fight over subsidies for Boeing and Airbus
London:
Britain said Thursday the United States had agreed to remove retaliatory tariffs on various UK goods and jointly de-escalate the longstanding fight over subsidies for Boeing and Airbus.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss see the deal would see the removal of a 25 percent surcharge on Scotch whisky as well as tariffs on cashmere, machinery and other products.
“I’ve agreed with the US to remove retaliatory tariffs on a range of UK goods,” Truss said on Twitter, adding the agreement included “a joint de-escalation of the Boeing-Airbus dispute”.
The 16-year-old trans-Atlantic conflict over government aid to the competing aircraft manufacturers has seen Brussels and Washington each impose punitive tariffs.
They included US duties on a record $7.5 billion (6.2 billion euros) in European goods authorised by the World Trade Organization in 2019.
The tariffs on Scotch whisky and a host of other items since October 2019 have hit the once lucrative market hard.
Britain’s exit from the European Union’s single market and customs union at the start of the year have compounded the industry’s problems.
Before the levy, the US market for Scotch was valued at Pound 1.06 billion. By 2020 it had fallen 32 percent to Pound 729 million.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday welcomed the new agreement, saying it would “strengthen the UK-US trading relationship and work to build back better from the pandemic”.
“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,” he said on Twitter.
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