UK, US reach deal over Airbus-Boeing row

UK, US reach deal over Airbus-Boeing row

LONDON: Britain and the US have suspended retaliatory tariffs levied during a 17-year dispute over state aid for European planemaker Airbus and US rival Boeing, London announced yesterday. The moves came in the wake of a similar long-term deal between the European Union and US unveiled Tuesday. The Airbus-Boeing dispute, the longest-running in the history of the World Trade Organization, has seen damaging retaliatory tariffs slapped on products such as French wines, Scotch whisky and US wheat and tobacco. Both sides have now finally agreed "to suspend retaliatory tariffs for five years“, the British government said in a statement.

The agreement followed talks between Britain's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. "Today's deal draws a line under an incredibly damaging issue,“ said Truss. She added that it meant the UK could now focus on taking its "trading relationship with the US to the next level“, as Britain seeks to strike a post-Brexit free-trade agreement with the world's biggest economy. Truss added that the two countries would also work "more closely to challenge unfair practices by nations like China and using the power of free trade to build back better from the pandemic“.

President Joe Biden and the