The International Trade Secretary has today
struck an historic deal with the US on the Airbus-Boeing
dispute in a major win for industries like Scotch whisky.
After talks with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai at
the Department for International Trade’s headquarters in
central London, both sides have agreed to suspend
retaliatory tariffs for 5 years and cooperate more closely
on tackling unfair trade practices by non-market economies.
The 17-year dispute, the longest-running in the history of
the World Trade Organization, has seen damaging retaliatory
tariffs levied on products on both sides of the Atlantic
due to disagreements over support for large civil aircraft.
The disagreement has hit industries such as cashmere,
machinery, and single-malt Scotch whisky that employ tens
of thousands of people across the UK. The Scotch Whisky
Association estimates the tariffs have cost the sector
hundreds of millions of pounds in lost revenue.
The UK, which was involved as a member of the EU, took the
decision to deescalate the dispute by unilaterally
suspending retaliatory tariffs on the US at the start of
this year, which encouraged the US to agree to a four-month
suspension of tariffs while both sides negotiated a
longer-term arrangement.
The UK and US will now work together to put the agreement
into practice and strengthen cooperation in the large civil
aircraft sector.
Today’s deal marks our intention to: * Not imposing
countermeasures for 5 years. * Establishing a working group
on large civil aircraft that is led by the respective
Minister responsible for trade. * Providing financing to a
large civil aircraft producer for the production or
development of large civil aircraft on market terms. *
Providing research & development funding for large
civil aircraft: through an open and transparent process;
making the results widely available; and not providing
R&D funding, or other support, to producers of large
civil aircraft in a way that would cause negative effects
to the other side. * Collaborating on tackling non-market
practices of third countries that may impact on their large
civil aircraft industries.
,
International Trade Secretary, said:
This deal will support jobs across the country and is
fantastic news for major employers like Scotch whisky and
sectors like aerospace. We took the decision to
de-escalate the dispute at the start of the year when we
became a sovereign trading nation, which was crucial to
breaking the deadlock and bringing the US to the table.
I want to thank Katherine personally for her role in
making this happen. Today’s deal draws a line under an
incredibly damaging issue and means we can focus on
taking our trading relationship with the US to the next
level, including working more closely to challenge unfair
practices by nations like China and using the power of
free trade to build back better from the pandemic.
