PARIS (Reuters) – EU President and incoming administration of US President Joe Biden should ban trade unrest to give themselves time to find common ground, foreign minister said France in comments published Sunday.
“The question that is poisoning everyone, is rising prices and taxes on steel, digital technology, Airbus and especially our wine sector,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview.
He said he hoped the sides would find a way to resolve the dispute. “It may take some time, but in the meantime, we can always order a moratorium,” he said.
In late December the United States moved to increase tariffs on French and German aircraft parts, wine and other spirits in the Boeing-Airbus subsidy dispute, but the bloc decided to suspend retaliation for now.
The EU plans to unveil the WTO reform proposal in February and is willing to consider reforms to suspend the legal authority of the WTO dispute settlement body.
The United States has been complaining for years that the WTO Appeals Body is making new trade rules unreasonable in its decisions and has blocked new judges from blocking this, leaving the body inoperative.
The Trump administration, which leaves office Wednesday, had threatened to impose taxes on French cosmetics, handbags and other goods in retaliation for the French digital services tax, which they said discriminated against companies. US technical.
Reciting with Iain Gaeilge; Edited by Pravin Char