Luis Planas, Minister of Agriculture of Spain, has stood before the United States and demanded today that the tariffs on Spanish black olives, which were imposed during the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, be eliminated. The tariffs remain in force despite the fact that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against them.
“I believe that we are now at the moment in which, on the part of the United States, the elimination of these tariffs must clearly occur, which in a way, I believe, is absolutely unfair, tax the exports of Spanish black olives,” declared the politician. upon arrival at the meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the Twenty-seven held in Brussels. The minister stressed that “there is no other compliance measure than the elimination of tariffs.”
“On February 20, the WTO panel clearly demonstrated that the United States had not complied with the previous resolution of the WTO itself in relation to the issue of black olives. The deadline has passed and the United States has not responded to the result of this panel,” Planas explained. She insisted that Washington, “by not resorting to the panel” agrees with the WTO.
‘Trump era’ tariffs
Since August 2018, the United States has applied anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on imports of Spanish black olives. In June 2019, the corresponding Panel was established, whose final report was published in November 2021. It concluded that the US measures were inconsistent with WTO rules and the country’s administration communicated its decision to accept it and not appeal.
However, in July 2022, the United States Department of Commerce began a reopening of the initial procedure to adapt its conclusions notified by the Panel and in December of that year it announced that it considered the Panel’s demands met.
However, the European Commission appeared to lack such compliance and, in April 2023, informed the WTO of its intention to begin consultations with the United States as a preliminary step to requesting a Compliance Panel.
The latter was established last August and its final report, which was made public on February 20, concludes that the US did not correctly apply a previous decision by the organization that forced it to reduce tariffs.
