US proposes $4 billion in tariffs on a range of EU products — including parmesan cheese — over subsidies for commercial aircraft

The United States proposes $4 billion in tariffs on a range of European Union products — including parmesan cheese and Scotch and Irish whiskey — over subsidies for commercial aircraft.

The list also includes sausages, hams, pasta, olives and many other cheeses including reggiano, provolone, edam and gouda.

“Today, the Office of the US Trade Representative is issuing for public comment a supplemental list of products that could potentially be subject to additional duties,” it says in a statement.

The potential tariffs are due to “EU subsidies on large civil aircraft,” the statement says.

Transatlantic trade

On April 9, 2019, the EU said the sum of $11.2 billion demanded by the US in tariff counter-measures on a host of European products was exaggerated, as a simmering transatlantic trade row risked escalating.

“The EU is confident that the level of countermeasures on which the notice is based is greatly exaggerated,” a European Commission source says, in response to the fresh US tariffs threatened in response to subsidies for Europe’s plane-making giant Airbus.