The US is increasing tariffs on Airbus SE planes imported from Europe to 15 percent, authorities announced, in a move the aerospace giant on Saturday said was “deeply” regrettable.
Friday’s decision to hike tariffs from March 18 “further escalates trade tensions between the US and the EU,” the European aerospace giant said in a statement, adding that it creates “more instability for US airlines that are already suffering from a shortage of aircraft.”
The announcement from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) came just days after US President Donald Trump said that it was time to talk “very seriously” about a trade deal with the EU.
Duties have been at 10 percent since October last year, when Washington hit European products worth US$7.5 billion with tariffs after the WTO gave the US a green light to take retaliatory trade measures against the EU over its subsidies to Airbus.
“Airbus deeply regrets USTR’s decision to increase tariffs on aircraft imported from the EU, as well as the decision to maintain tariffs on goods from other sectors,” the company said, referring to products — including wine, cheese, coffee and olives — that have been taxed at 25 percent since October.
The latest decision “ignores the many submissions made by US airlines, highlighting the fact that they — and the US flying public — will ultimately have to pay these tariffs,” it added.
The European Commission struck a cautious tone in a statement about the US decision on Airbus.
“In our view, the focus now should be on finding a negotiated solution to the aircraft disputes on the basis of the concrete EU proposals for existing subsidies and future disciplines in this sector,” it said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day