Kane's Beverage News Daily

Brown-Forman Corp. said it was ‘encouraged” by Monday’s announcement the European Union and the U.S. had agreed to resume talks to settle the steel/aluminum subsidy dispute.The move avoids the doubling of tariffs on American whiskey, and Brown-Forman said it applauded both the Biden Administration and its EU counterparts for the “positive step forward.”

“However, American whiskey still remains subject to 25% retaliatory tariffs in the EU and UK. We remain hopeful that the negotiators will build on the progress that’s been made and ultimately secure a removal of tariffs on American whiskey,” the company said.

Meanwhile, National Association of beverage Importers President Robert M. Tobiassen said the announcement that the European Union had suspended a doubling of the retaliatory tariff doubling and both the U.S. and EU had set a goal of resolving the steel/aluminum subsidy dispute by year’s end “is yet another positive and encouraging step in rebuilding a solid and trustworthy trade alliance.”

“This momentum should lead to a settlement of the Airbus/Boeing disputes within the mutual four-month suspension of tariffs,” he said.

Tobiassen noted that in her more than 14 hours of appearing before congressional committees on her confirmation, USTR appropriations, and on the President’s Trade Agenda, Ambassador Katherine Tai “has consistently and stridently said that she is very serious about bringing closure to longstanding disputes like Airbus/Boeing and believes that this may be accomplished within the four-month window of the mutual suspensions.

Tai has linked the temporary suspensions as “worker centric” which is one of the two fundamental keystones of the Biden/Harris Administration—the other being climate change.

Tobiassen said “The goodwill built so far creates a favorable environment for the settlement of the Airbus/Boeing disputes in ways that parallel today’s suspension which fundamentally recognizes the need for a longer-term and global solution to the excess steel capacity world-wide.

“Rules on State support of domestic business entities in the third decade of the 21^st Century must truly be re-addressed on the global level in negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO).”

He added, “The trade technicians at USTR and the European Commission need to come up with principles or rules and a concrete solution that meets the needs of both the U.S. and EU quickly, so the political decision on the settlement can be made no later than the U.S.-EU Summit scheduled for June 14, 2021, following the G7 Ministerial meeting.”