Effective March 18, the U.S. will collect a 15% tariff, up from 10%, on imported aircraft from Airbus.
There was no immediate response to the tariff from the European Commission.
Following a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting on the matter of a subsidy case against Airbus, the WTO confirmed that the U.S. had the right to collect a 100 percent tariff on $7.5 billion of annual EU imports that include Airbus aircraft.
Airbus countered saying According to Airbus, the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) “further escalation” complicates efforts to find a negotiated outcome to the 15-year-long dispute and ignores the “many submissions made by U.S. airlines, highlighting the fact that they—and the U.S. flying public—will ultimately have to pay these tariffs.”
The Airbus repeated its assertion that the tariffs create “more instability for U.S. airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft.” It said it will continue its discussions with its U.S. customers and work with them to mitigate the effects of tariffs “insofar as possible.”