EU Ambassador Says He's Hopeful Boeing-Airbus Dispute Will Be Resolved Soon

The European Union's ambassador to the U.S. said that as the world watches the European Union-U.S. summit in a week, they will be looking to see that “we are capable of resolving quickly and effectively our bilateral trade irritants.” He said they also want to see “that we can work and will work together to address the new challenges that sit on the nexus of technology and trade and security.” He said that export controls and cyber security measures are some of the ways to address those challenges, and there should be an announcement at the conference on those matters.

Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis said the EU's leaders and President Joe Biden will discuss China, of course. Lambrinidis and State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Molly Montgomery were speaking on a webinar June 8 previewing the summit, hosted by the German Marshall Fund.

Montgomery said she attended the first high-level meeting of the U.S.-EU China dialogue. “We were all struck … by how close our perspectives are in many ways on China and we do both see our relationships as multifaceted. We have really found common cause on a trans-Atlantic basis on standing up to the PRC’s human rights abuses, coercive economic practices” and more, she said.

On the trade irritant side, Lambrinidis said that the U.S. and the EU “have wasted a lot of time fighting each other” over subsidies to wide-bodied aircraft production in the U.S. and Europe when other countries, such as China, are subsidizing aircraft far more. “We have to stop imposing punitive tariffs on each other,” he said. He said he's very hopeful that the serious, detailed discussions on settling the Airbus-Boeing dispute can lead to a successful conclusion soon. The tariffs on both sides for that dispute were put on a temporary four-month pause in early April. Tariffs on European steel and retaliatory tariffs on American exports, such as whiskey and motorcycles, continue.

Lambrinidis also said he's hopeful that the EU and the U.S. can agree on how to lift the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum, and address the underlying problem of China's overcapacity in steel production, as Montgomery nodded in agreement. “The EU is as hurt by this as the U.S. is,” he said.

Montgomery said resolving, or at least de-escalating, bilateral irritants is key to robust cooperation between the U.S. and Europe. “That will allow us to move forward on this huge affirmative agenda we have,” she said.