The European Union published its preliminary list of U.S. goods being targeted in a $12 billion plan for retaliatory tariffs over subsidies to Boeing Co.
The European Commission began a public consultation over the American products ranging from video-game consoles to ketchup. The World Trade Organization will ultimately decide the level of damages the EU can seek, with a verdict possible toward the end of this year or in early 2020.
The EU retaliation plan, unveiled on Wednesday in Brussels, follows a U.S. threat to seek $11 billion in damages through duties on European goods ranging from helicopters to cheeses to counter state aid to Airbus SE. Both moves stem from parallel, 14-year-old, disputes at the WTO over market-distorting support for aircraft makers.
Crosscurrents are rippling through transatlantic trade ties, as the EU and U.S. prepare for negotiations on removing industrial tariffs. The two sides are engaging in renewed sparring over aircraft aid and President Donald Trump’s “America First” protectionism, especially his controversial duties on foreign steel and aluminum based on national-security grounds and a threat he has kept alive to apply automotive levies on the same basis.
EU imports of the goods on the preliminary retaliation list in the Boeing dispute have a total value of around $20 billion and the bloc would eventually apply duties on some or all of the products once the WTO sets the damages limit, according to officials.
So far, the EU has applied tit-for-tat tariffs on 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion) of American goods in response to Trump’s metal duties and threatened to hit a further 20 billion euros of U.S. products with levies should Washington restrict automotive imports.
