Washington and Brussels, Belgium—The United States and the European Union (EU) last Friday agreed on the mutual suspension for four months of the tariffs related to the World Trade Organization (WTO) aircraft disputes.

The suspension will cover all tariffs both on aircraft as well as on non-aircraft products.

The suspension will allow the US and the EU “to ease the burden on their industries and workers and focus efforts towards resolving these long running disputes at the WTO,” according to a joint EU-US statement.

The US and EU are committed to reaching a “comprehensive and durable negotiated solution” to the aircraft disputes, the statement continued.

The United States began applying WTO-approved tariffs of 25 percent on certain EU goods, including numerous cheese and other dairy products, beginning Oct. 18, 2019. Those tariffs were a result of a longstanding US dispute with the EU over illegal subsidies to Airbus.

Last November, the EU began applying 25 percent retailatory tariffs on several dairy and cheese products, as well as a number of other products, against the US in a long-running Boeing dispute.

“This is a significant step forward. It marks a reset in our relationship with our biggest and economically most important partner,” commented US Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.

“Removing these tariffs is a win-win for both sides, at a time when the pandemic is hurting our workers and our economies,” Dombrovskis continued. “This suspension will help restore confidence and trust, and therefore give us the space to come to a comprehensive and long-lasting negotiated solution.

“A positive EU-US trade relationship is important not only to the two sides but to global trade at large,” Dombrovskis added.

Since the EU imposed its Boeing-related tariffs last November, US and EU political leaders have been under pressure from some US and EU dairy, food, agriculture and other industries to remove the tariffs.

For example, roughly a week after the EU started imposing tariffs on imports from the US, some 21 US dairy, farm and food organizations urged then-US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to continue engaging the EU to secure the removal of tariffs on US food and agricultural exporters and to address bilateral compliance matters. These included not only the aircraft-related tariffs but also tariffs levied in 2018 in a dispute involving steel and aluminum.

Two months ago, the Cheese Importers Association of America (CIAA) and the European Dairy Association asked then-Presidentelect Biden and Dombrovskis to end the aircraft dispute and negotiate an end to the tariffs and sanctions authorized by the WTO.

And later in January, a coalition of 72 food, farm and other groups asked Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to remove, or at least suspend, all additional and retaliatory tariffs affecting or threatening Trans-Atlantic trade in sectors unrelated to the WTO aircraft and steel and aluminum disputes immediately.

In other US-EU trade developments, the US and EU have concluded negotiations to adjust the EU’s WTO agricultural quotas, following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

This is the culmination of two years of negotiations in the WTO framework to divide these EU quotas, with part of the volume remaining with the EU-27, and part going to the UK, based on recent trade flows, the European Commission noted.

The agreement covers dozens of quotas and billions of euros of trade including for dairy products, beef, poultry, rice, fruits and vegetables and wines.

Further details on the agreement have not yet been released.