EU trade chief calls on US to drop tariffs in Airbus-Boeing dispute

The European Union's new trade chief has told the US to withdraw tariffs on more than $7 billion of EU products or face additional duties on exports to Europe, as he urged a settlement to the dispute over Airbus SE and Boeing Co, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Repairing the transatlantic relationship would be EU's top priority, and the US should withdraw its Airbus-related tariffs as a confidence-building measure, the EU's new trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis told the FT.

"Of course, if the US is not withdrawing their tariffs we have no choice but to then introduce our tariffs," he was quoted as saying.

Washington was awarded the right by the World Trade Organization (WTO) last October, to impose tariffs on $7.5 billion of annual EU imports in its case against Airbus. Washington then imposed 25 per cent duties on products ranging from single-malt whisky to olives and cheese and 10 per cent tariffs on most European-made Airbus jets.

In mid-February, the US government said it would increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the EU to 15 per cent from 10 per cent, ratcheting up pressure on Brussels in a nearly 16-year dispute over aircraft subsidies.

The EU for its part, has been cleared by the WTO to impose tariffs on US products worth $4 billion to retaliate against subsidies for American planemaker Boeing, sources told Reuters last month, with the award expected to be published within weeks.