U.S. and EU Announce Tariff Agreement

In a joint statement released on August 21, 2020, the United States Trade Representative and the EU Trade Commission announced an agreement on a package of tariff reductions that will increase market access for hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. and EU exports. These tariff reductions are the first negotiated reductions in duties between the U.S and EU in more than two decades.
 
Under the agreement, the EU will eliminate tariffs on imports of US live and frozen lobster products. (The US exported over $111 million of these products to the EU in 2017.) Both the EU and the US will eliminate these tariffs on a Most Favored Nation basis, retroactive to August 1, 2020. The EU tariffs will be eliminated for a period of five years, with the European Commission promptly initiating procedures aimed at making the tariff changes permanent. The U.S. will reduce its tariff rates by 50% on certain products exported by the EU worth an average annual trade value of $160 million. These products include certain prepared meals, certain crystal glassware, surface preparations, propellant powders, cigarette lighters, and lighter parts.
 
For more information about these and other trade developments, please contact a BDO Customs and International Trade Services professional.