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The World Trade Organization (WTO) publicly rebuked the United States, ruling earlier this week that it had failed to comply with its previous decision to remove tariffs on Spanish ripe black table olive imports.
After nearly one year of deliberation, the WTO said the European Union has demonstrated that the U.S. failed to bring its measures into compliance with international law – essentially to remove the tariffs.
The WTO further confirmed that the U.S. law cited by authorities in their decision to impose tariffs on Spanish table olives is inconsistent with international trade law. It has opened the door to the E.U. imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.
See Also:Europe Pressures U.S. to Drop Trump-Era TariffsAntonio de Mora, the secretary general of the Spanish Association of Table Olive Exporters and Producers (Asemesa), hailed the ruling but called on Brussels to impose retaliatory tariffs until the U.S. tariffs are removed.
“[The U.S. must] eliminate 100 percent of the tariff,” he said. “It will be necessary for the E.U. to act urgently by imposing retaliatory tariffs on products that the U.S. is exporting to the E.U. as the only way to achieve the elimination of tariffs on olives.”
However, the U.S. decision to remove the tariffs may come down to a separate case being heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit – Aceitunas Guadalquivir v. United States, Coalition for Fair Trade in Ripe Olives.
Lawyers involved in the case believe the court is more likely to reach a decision now that the WTO has handed down its ruling, which would be definitive since the U.S. Supreme Court is highly unlikely to hear an appeal.
Still, Asemesa, a plaintiff in the case currently being heard in the U.S. Appeals Court, said the damage had already been done to the sector, with many traditional buyers of Spanish table olives turning to other countries.
“The loss of 70 percent of exports to the U.S., to the benefit of countries such as Morocco, Egypt or Turkey and community countries such as Portugal or Greece, alters free competition and threatens Spain’s clear global leadership in this sector,” de Mora said.
According to data from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, total Spanish table olive exports to the U.S. in the first eight months of 2023 were 14 percent lower than in 2017, the last year before the tariffs were imposed. Over the same period, Spain went from supplying 39 percent of U.S. table olives to just 19 percent in 2023.
The ministry estimates that the tariffs on Spanish black table olive imports have cost producers, packers and exporters a total of €208.6 million since 2017.
However, the government data also pointed to better news for Spanish green table olive exports, which were hit with a 25-percent tariff in a separate dispute between the U.S. and the E.U. over aircraft manufacturer subsidies. Those tariffs have since been suspended.
While green table exports to the U.S. remain 12 percent below what they were before 2021 when the tariffs were imposed, the ministry said they were continuing to climb.
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