Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Cecilia Malmstrom, the outgoing European commissioner for trade, said the E.U. had tried to negotiate a way out of retaliatory tariffs in response to both the Airbus and Boeing rulings, but that the United States had not responded to these requests.
Ms. Malmstrom told reporters in Brussels on Monday that she had approached American officials “long before this summer” to discuss a resolution to the tariff spat.
“It’s not that they said ‘no,’ it’s that they have not engaged on this, and we have provided them paper and proposals and so on,” she said. “We would propose that we both freeze or suspend our tariffs while we talk, until we come to an agreement, and that remains to be seen.”
She added that both governments “need to discipline our air industries” and work to reform subsidies. “And it would be good to do that together,” she added.
“It is sometimes a little bit hard to predict the next step by the U.S. administration,” Ms. Malmstrom said.
The United States Trade Representative didn’t respond immediately for comment.
Ms. Malstrom also said Monday that negotiations on a free-trade agreement with the United States had stalled. American officials want agricultural goods to be included in any trade discussion, saying that a deal that excludes farm goods would be unlikely to be approved by Congress. The European Union has refused to put agriculture on the table and pushed for the pact to cover industries where the two governments already agree, namely non-auto industrial goods.
European officials had hoped for a fresh start with the United States earlier this month, after a positive visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Brussels on Sept. 2. Ms. Malmstrom said Monday that Gordon Sondland, the American ambassador to the European Union, had told her that the United States wanted to “restart” their relationship with the European Union.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/business/economy/wto-airbus-tariffs.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
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