US-EU trade tensions likely to heighten as Trump administration considers imposing $3.1bn worth new tariff
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Roshan Amiri
- . October 22, 2021
- . Update: June 25, 2020 9:59 pm
Libya–On Thursday in Tripoli, the Libyan government met together with 15 foreign ministers, representatives of the African Union, the European Union, the Arab League, and the United Nations for an international conference. The goal is always the same: to stabilize the country after ten years of civil war.
“Libya’s unity government is strongly committed to the country’s sovereignty, independence, regional security, and national unity,” Libyan foreign minister Najla al-Mangoush told a news conference. “Strongly rejects foreign interference in Libyan affairs and denounces attempts to violate the arms embargo and create chaos. It is essential to take the necessary steps to build trust and create an appropriate environment to hold national elections honestly and transparently.”
As the countdown to the elections, which will be held on December 24, begins, the priorities remain the maintenance of the ceasefire, the gathering of the different armed groups of the country under a single security body, and the withdrawal of foreign fighters.
Read | Libyan Foreign Minister announces the Ministerial conference for stability
In his speech at the opening of the Conference in support of Libya’s stability, the head of Libya’s National Unity government, Abdel Hamid al-Dbeibah, stressed that the initiative “is a strong message that the phase of stability and construction has begun in our country.” The Prime Ministerclaim was backed by World Trade Organisation, which in October ruled against EU’s protective trade policy and said that Germany, France, Spain and the UK granted illegal subsidies to the aircraft manufacturer, Airbus. WTO allowed the US to impose $7.5 billion in duties. Besides, what made US propose new tariffs was another WTO ruling, announced in December, that allowed Washington to further impose new duties on more European goods as EU did not pull back its illegal subsidiesfor Airbus.
Besides the aircraft dispute, the EU-US trade war was also triggered by the Europe’s pushing for heavy digital tax on the services provided by American technology giants in the continent. EU has been pushing to set up a global system for taxing digital services provided by tech companies based outside EU. European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, from Denmark, in a recent interview said that EU would “really, really prefer a global consensus” on digital tax, but would go ahead with a regional tax, “if we need to.”
The EU digital tax, if implemented would impact the revenues of big US tech companies including Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, etc. President Donald Trump called Vestager the “tax lady” over her decision to ask Apple to pay over $14 billion in unpaid taxes to the government of Ireland, as per the regulations of the new digital tax.
In light of the US additional tax on EU imports, the bloc said that the only way to settle the dispute was through negotiations and it had prepared “concrete proposals” to resolve the underlying aircraft dispute.
The commission spokesperson said Brussels was “concerned” that the US tax measures “might even go beyond what is authorised under the WTO”. “For the EU the priority remains finding a balanced negotiated solution to the aircraft disputes,” they said. “The EU has shared concrete proposals with the US that would achieve that.”
