CECE and the EU-US trade

Equipment manufacturers in the United States and European Union depend on global supply chains to source parts and components, and access foreign markets to export their machinery. Today, 80 percent of world trade is driven by supply chains with trade in intermediate goods now nearly twice as large as trade in final goods. This is especially important in advanced manufacturing like construction equipment manufacturing. As both the United States and European Union are centers of technological development, transatlantic trade is helping create a strong path to sustained manufacturing competitiveness. However, the resort to tariffs and countermeasures is threatening to undermine transatlantic economic growth and development.

Notoriously, the use of tariffs will inevitably lead to counter tariffs, lost markets for producers, higher consumer prices, shaky investor confidence and the potential to undermine long established transatlantic supply chains our workers and industry depend on. The United States and the European Union need to focus on removing barriers to trade while working together to counter unfair trade practices by third countries. Strengthening the rule of law and reforming the WTO to effectively respond to the challenges of global commerce in the 21st century is in the shared interests of the United States and the European Union. With a joint statement, CECE and the American Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) call on the European Union and the United States to work diligently together to defuse the tensions arising from the WTO Boeing/Airbus dispute, remove tariffs and avoid escalations.