A bipartisan group of 13 U.S. senators sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office asking it to remove the 25 percent tariffs imposed in October 2019 on E.U. specialty food, wine, and spirits, reports Reuters. The tariffs were put in place as retaliation for E.U. subsidies on large aircraft and include French wine, Italian cheese, olives from France, E.U. produced pork sausage, and German coffee.
The seven Republican and six Democratic senators include Robert Menendez, John Barrasso, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins, Dianne Feinstein, Pat Toomey, Kyrsten Sinema and Cory Booker. In the letter, they said that American “restaurants, retailers, grocers, importers and distributors” are experiencing “severe economic hardship due to the increased cost of goods.”
The letter also noted that “demand for these goods has declined, leaving importers and distributors with months’ worth of product, much of it perishable, in storage and in transit with no clear end date for the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The USTR did not immediately comment, according to the report. Full Story
Related: SFA Voices Opposition to New Retaliatory Tariffs; US Whiskey Distillers Lose $300 Million in Trade War.
from Specialty Food News https://ift.tt/3kvMm65
No comments: