President Donald Trump said Tuesday he'll put tariffs on $11 billion worth European Union cheese, wine and other goods to retaliate for what Washington says are improper subsidies to Airbus.
The office of the U.S. trade representative late Monday released a preliminary list of EU goods facing additional duties that includes everything from aircraft and aircraft parts to cheese, wine and olives. The list is subject to public comment in anticipation of an expected World Trade Organization ruling this summer that would be favorable to the U.S. in a pending arbitration case.
The U.S. says the WTO repeatedly has found that EU subsidies to European aircraft maker Airbus have caused "adverse effects" to the U.S., chiefly to Boeing Co., the American airplane manufacturer.
Trump, a critic of the WTO, tweeted Tuesday that he "will now put Tariffs on $11 Billion of EU products! The EU has taken advantage of the U.S. on trade for many years. It will soon stop!"
The long-running dispute precedes the Trump administration. The U.S. had in 2004 complained to the WTO, which sets global trade rules and settles disputes, that the EU was providing unfair support to Airbus. The WTO ruled last May that the EU had in fact provided some illegal subsidies to Airbus, hurting Chicago-based Boeing.
The EU has argued the Boeing has benefited from similar government support.
The U.S. expects the WTO will say this summer that it can take countermeasures to offset the EU subsidies.
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
