CECE calls to solve the Boeing-Airbus dispute through negotiation and remove tariffs

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. As both the United States and European Union are centres of technological development, transatlantic trade is helping create a strong path to sustained manufacturing competitiveness.

However, resorting to tariffs and countermeasures in the WTO Airbus - Boeing dispute is threatening to undermine transatlantic economic growth and development.

On 13 October the WTO has granted the EU the possibility to impose up to 4 billion dollars in tariffs against US products in the context of the Boeing dispute. The EU is now working on a retaliatory list of US products that could be subject to EU countermeasures.

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. For this reason, reiterating the message of the joint statement issued last year with the American Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), CECE is now calling on the EU and the US to solve the Boeing - Airbus dispute through negotiation with the aim of removing all tariffs stemming from this dispute.

CECE believes that the current trade tensions between the US and the EU should be solved through a constructive dialogue and a positive trade agenda in order to avoid a vicious cycle of countermeasures.