Slate -The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would follow through on its threat from earlier this year and slap tariffs on European wine, cheese, charcuterie, whiskey, and suits, among a host of other luxe products, as part of a long-running trade dispute over subsidies for airplane manufacturers, of all things.
The move followed shortly after the World Trade Organization officially gave the U.S. a green light to impose duties on up to $7.5 billion worth of goods from the European Union, as punishment for subsidies it provided to Airbus, the EU’s leading maker of commercial planes. This was the final ruling in a winding 15-year conflict and gave American authorities the right to place levies on any European imports they chose as retribution. The U.S. has settled on a list that, in part at least, reads like a catalog of stuff that bougie blue state urbanites love. Along with a 10 percent tariff on airplanes, the administration is placing new 25 percent tariffs on an array of clothes, industrial goods, and agricultural products. French wine, Spanish olive oil, Scotch whiskey, Italian hams, German knives, and all manner of cheese—pecorino, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Gouda, blue cheese—will come in for border taxes. So will all sorts of British menswear.
No comments:
Post a Comment