On February 14, 2020, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it had completed its review of the current Section 301 tariffs due to the ongoing Large Civil Aircraft dispute with the European Union (EU).  As previously reported, various European goods (including aircraft, certain textiles and wearing apparel, hardware, cheeses, and other agricultural goods) were subject to additional duties due the ongoing Large Civil Aircraft dispute with the EU since October 18, 2019.

With this announcement, new airplanes and aircraft are now subject to additional duty of 15 percent (increased from 10 percent).

All other goods on the list will continue to be subject to an additional 25% duty (no increase).  Notably, only one tariff subheading was removed from the initial list (HTSUS Subheading 2009.89.40 – prune juice, concentrated or not concentrated).  One tariff subheading not on the initial list was added to the list (HTSUS Subheading 8214.90.60 – Butchers’ or kitchen chopping or mincing knives (o/than cleavers w/their handles)).

It is also important to note that while the United Kingdom is officially no longer a part of the EU, certain goods imported from the United Kingdom are still subject to this tariff action.

USTR indicates in the notice that the U.S. remains open to a negotiated settlement that addresses current and future subsidies to large civil aircraft provided by the EU and certain current and former Member States.  However, going forward, USTR may revise the action “as appropriate immediately upon any EU imposition of additional duties on U.S. products in connection with the Large Civil Aircraft dispute or with the EU’s WTO challenge to the alleged subsidization of U.S. large civil aircraft.”

We will continue to monitor this situation and will provide future updates as additional details become available.  If you have any questions regarding the Section 301 tariffs related to the Large Civil Aircraft Dispute, please contact Robert Stang, Emily Lyons or a member of Husch Blackwell’s International Trade and Supply Chain team.