my timesThe Korea Times

Airbus chief calls for tariffs on Boeing exports

Listen
By AFP
  • Published KST
  • Updated KST
A Boeing sign sits on a building near Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, April 22, as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs with China. Reuters-Yonhap

A Boeing sign sits on a building near Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, April 22, as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs with China. Reuters-Yonhap

The head of Airbus said on Tuesday that Europe should impose tariffs on imports of Boeing aircraft if negotiations over U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war fail.

Trump has rolled out a "baseline" levy of 10 percent on goods from around the world but he has suspended a higher tariff of 20 percent on European Union products while the two sides negotiate.

If negotiations "do not result in a positive outcome, I imagine that there will be — and that's what we wish -- reciprocal tariffs on airplanes to force a higher level of negotiation," Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury told AFP.

Faury, who was speaking at a press event by French aerospace industry association Gifas, said any response should be similar to the strategy used in a previous spat during the first Trump administration.

Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on the European aviation sector in 2019 after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that the EU had illegally subsidised Airbus, and raised it to 15 percent in 2020.

The WTO later ruled that the United States also provided illegal aid to Boeing. The EU then imposed a 15-percent tariff on Boeing planes.

The tariffs were subsequently lifted under president Joe Biden in 2021. (AFP)