The olive Spanish targeting both against the tariffs imposed by the Administration of Donald Trump. According to the Association of Exporters and Industrialists Table Olives (Asemesa), the u.s. Court of International Trade U.S. failed last Friday against the resolution that establishes trade barriers to imports of black olives Spanish. Asemesa, who had filed an appeal against the measure, says that the ruling “could be the first step for the elimination of tariffs”, as that forces the Department of Commerce of USA to present new arguments, within 90 days, in order to maintain the charge for the Spanish product.
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US imposes to the olive Spanish a tariff preliminary for unfair competition The government of Trump investigated for unfair competition to the olive Spanish
olives black Spanish was one of the first Spanish victims of the vortex protectionist Trump. The pulse between Madrid and Washington began in July of 2017, when the Department of Commerce of the united STATES, at the request of the agricultural sector in california —alleging unfair competition, announced that they would start to investigate if the public subsidies granted to the Spanish producers of black olives through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) were illegal.
Four months after it was settled that the aid is allowed to set a price below the market, causing significant damage to producers, indigenous, and chose to apply a tariff preliminary was rising gradually up to fix it in the 34,75% from the August 1, 2018. During the first month of application of the levy final, sales to the united STATES, main destination of exports of table olives, Spanish, fell by 70%.
In his ruling last Friday, according to move Asemesa, the us court gives the reason to the association in the two main arguments on which the Department of Commerce had based to consider that the aid of the CAP were illegal: they were specific and that the demand for olive crude depended on the demand of the olive transformed. This last argument, clarifies Asemesa, is the one that allowed the united States to be attributed to the industry all the subsidies granted to farmers.
According to the association, the decision of the court constitutes “a very important milestone, given that it is the american justice which has decided that the arguments used to impose the tariffs to the black olive, is not justified”.
just a year Ago, the European Commission complained to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the tariffs imposed by the US to the black olive Spanish, alleging that they were unfair and that there was not enough evidence that will affect u.s. producers. The WTO agreed to a request to create a group of experts to investigate the validity of the barriers anti-dumping activated by the Administration Trump, whose findings have yet to be released.
“This decision of justice u.s. could lower tariffs from 35% to 20%, which would be a very significant reduction,” explains the secretary general of Asemesa, Antonio Mora, with respect to the judgment of the Federal Court of International Trade of the united STATES. “Involves a very important support to the process opened by the EU before the WTO, in which these two arguments are also critical.”
This is not the only battle that the Spanish agri-food sector has opened with the united States. Last year, the WTO gave the green light for Washington’s approval of tariffs of up to 25% to a long list of products community after it ruled that the subsidies that Brussels was awarded to the aircraft manufacturer Airbus were illegal. The oil, the wine and the cheese are the Spanish products most affected by the measure.
