In October 2019, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) authorised the USA to impose tariffs on a number of EU strategic agricultural products as a result of its ruling on the Airbus-Boeing dispute.

Pursuant to a WTO compliance panel finding that the EU and Airbus did not take steps towards complying with WTO obligations, in February 2020 the USA decided to increase tariffs on aircraft imports from the EU and to rotate current tariffs on different non-aircraft EU products.

Meanwhile, in Davos in January 2020, President Von der Leyen and President Trump revealed that an EU-US trade agreement may be within reach in 2020. Simultaneously, Trade Commissioner Hogan stepped up his dialogue with the USA, and travelled multiple times to Washington DC in order to reset the transatlantic trade relationship.

Can the Commission provide an update on the status of its discussions with the United States Trade Representative on the aircraft subsidies dispute, given that a WTO determination on the level of authorised EU tariffs in the DS353 case (EU case against the USA) is expected early to mid-2020?

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Answer given by Mr Hogan on behalf of the European Commission here