Drinks Ireland Spirits responds to USTR’s first Airbus tariffs (120 day) review

Drinks Ireland|Spirits responded, on behalf of member companies, a number of whom are either U.S. owned and others who have significant investments and holdings in the U.S. spirits industry, to the first review into the Section 301 investigation into subsidies to large civil aircraft i.e. Airbus which resulted in 25% tariffs being applied to liqueurs and cordials (i.e. Irish Cream and other Irish liqueurs) from a number of EU member states including Ireland.

In this submission we urged the U.S. to engages in constructive and meaningful dialogue with its European counterparts to resolve this and other linked trade disputes. We urged that this dialogue also looks to restoring and recommitting to the bilateral tariff-free market access for distilled spirits that has worked to the benefit of U.S. and EU producers, consumers and economies on both sides of the Atlantic for nearly three decades prior to the imposition of tariffs in response to disputes in unrelated sectors.