Officials from the UK and US are close to coming to an agreement to lift the tariffs placed on certain goods that have arisen as a result of the ongoing Boeing-Airbus dispute, according to Robert Lighthizer, the outgoing US trade representative.
Photo: Airbus
Lighthizer admitted he was currently engaging in talks with the UK's trade secretary, Liz Truss, about removing many of the tariffs that have resulted from the 16-year dispute.
He added: “I’m hopeful we can get some kind of an agreement out you know, we don’t have a lot of time left."
The UK recently broke ranks from the greater EU bloc by freezing the sanctions placed on the US.
Read more: UK halts tariffs for Boeing-Airbus dispute
EU officials said it was unlikely the UK would be able to impose tariffs on the US once the Brexit transition period ended on December 31 and the UK formally withdraws from the EU.
The US trade representative hinted that the UK decision to halt tariffs on Boeing did not go far enough and was not considered to be a concession.
Last month, the EU hit the US with $4 million (€3.38 billion) worth of tariffs on certain goods in retaliation for similar sanctions the US placed on the bloc.
They were given the go-ahead after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) surmised the US had given illegal state aid to Boeing.
They had prior delayed implementing these tariffs owing to the 2020 presidential election and waited for the results to come in before pushing them on the US.
Relations between the two parties have been further soured by the Nord Stream 2 Baltic pipeline, which has recently resumed construction.
Read more: Nord Stream 2: Construction resumes as Germany mulls sanctions loophole & US demands moratorium
Conversely, the WTO had also previously ruled that Britain, France and Germany had illegally given state aid to Airbus. As a result, various goods imported from these countries were hit with 25% tariffs levied by the US.
With Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election, the outgoing Trump administration has little time to secure a deal with the UK.
Trade disputes had already arisen between the two parties owing to controversy surrounding the US's food standards.
UK officials had previously allayed the fears of activists by stipulating they would not let food standards slip in the face of a no-deal Brexit.
In a statement, Lighthizer said: “The US needs to get additional access to the agricultural market in the UK – that’s an important part of it; each side has to get something out of it.
“These are complicated technical issues. And they’re the kinds of things that will be worked out, I think, in the final stages of negotiation.”
He concluded that, despite complications, the two should be able to reach an agreement within two-to-three weeks.
Britain's aerospace sector is still reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Several key players recently proposed mandatory Covid testing as an alternative to further lockdown restrictions to help the beleaguered industry get back in the air.
The recent rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has not stopped aerospace leaders from imposing these tests in a bid to cut their losses.
Read more: Vaccine hope has not dissuaded aviation sector from mandatory testing
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