Strasbourg (AFP)
It is now up to the United States to "walk the talk to action" to resolve the trade dispute with the EU over steel and aluminum which plagues bilateral relations, the vice-president of the European Commission said on Wednesday. , Valdis Dombrovskis.
The EU has given up on raising the taxes it imposes on various American products on June 1, in response to customs duties decided by former US President Donald Trump on European steel and aluminum.
"We have sent a clear signal to the United States as to our desire to resolve this issue in a fair and balanced manner, by suspending the automatic doubling of our legitimate countermeasures," Dombrovskis reminded the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
"It is now for the United States to move from words to deeds," he said, six days before a meeting in Brussels between the new tenant of the White House, Joe Biden, and the two heads from the EU, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen.
"To build confidence, we must defuse and resolve trade disputes between the EU and the United States. We want to make decisive progress in resolving our bilateral disputes," said Valdis Dombrovskis, also referring to the conflict over the subsidies granted to aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing.
Since June 2018, the United States has imposed taxes of 25% on European imports of steel and 10% on those of aluminum.
The EU responded by taxing motorcycles like Harley-Davidson, jeans (including Levi's), or tobacco, corn, rice or orange juice from the United States.
Brussels and Washington had announced in May discussions to "solve the problem" of global steel and aluminum overcapacity, in order to eventually lift their respective punitive taxes.
The EU is now seeking a commitment from the United States to settle this conflict before December, according to a draft conclusions of the EU / United States summit on June 15.
"We are committed to working towards the lifting, before December 1, 2021, of all additional / punitive customs duties related to the continuation of our productive discussions on the settlement of our dispute on steel and aluminum", states the provisional joint statement seen by AFP.
The text, which can still be amended, also confirms the desire to reach an agreement on the Airbus-Boeing conflict by July 11.
After years of strong tensions under Donald Trump's mandate, trade relations between Brussels and Washington have entered a phase of appeasement since the election of Joe Biden.
The visit of the American president to Brussels as part of his first visit to Europe for the NATO and EU / United States summits should mark a renewal of the transatlantic relationship, in particular in the American standoff with China.
© 2021 AFP