According to Bloomberg , the EU and the US may agree to lift bilateral import duties in a dispute over steel and aluminum. The corresponding import duties were imposed by the Donald Trump administration in 2018, after which the EU, China and Russia announced retaliatory measures. An agreement on this issue is expected by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg sources.
According to Bloomberg sources, the European Commission spent Monday evening discussing the terms of a potential deal with EU member states in order to reach an agreement with the American side before the EU-US summit in Brussels.
The trade dispute between the US and the EU began in 2019 after the World Trade Organization (WTO) declared illegal the subsidies that Airbus had received from European countries for 15 years. The WTO allowed the US to impose tariffs on EU goods worth up to $ 7.5 billion, and then allowed the EU to impose similar tariffs worth up to $ 4 billion. The US claimed that more goods were affected by EU tariffs.
In March, the parties have already agreed to freeze the effect of duties, which were mutually imposed due to a trade dispute over subsidies for Boeing and Airbus, for four months. This agreement on the suspension of duties expires on July 10, and the parties intend to complete the agreement before that date.
Duties on steel from the European Union to the United States have been introduced since March 23, 2018. They are 25 percent for steel and 10 percent for aluminum. At the same time, EU companies were twice granted a grace period. Repeated attempts by the Europeans to get the penalties lifted on a permanent basis have been unsuccessful. In retaliation, the EU imposed 25 percent duties on American goods, including orange juice, whiskey, tobacco and motorcycles.
