Liz Truss set to speak to Biden’s new trade boss about US whisky tariffs
International trade secretary Liz Truss will speak to Joe Biden’s new US trade boss in the coming days about scrapping a range of tariffs on British goods, including Scotch whisky.
Truss told MPs today that she would be speaking to incoming US Trade Representative Katherine Tai as soon as she finishes her Senate confirmation hearings, which begin today.
The US levelled tariffs on several European countries in 2019 – after permission from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) – as a part of a long-running dispute between Airbus and Boeing.
This included tariffs on billions of pounds of British products, such as whisky, salmon and cashmere.
Export losses on Scotch whisky as a result of the US tariffs are approaching £450m.
Truss told MPs that recent efforts to get the US to scrap the tariffs had not yielded results.
“We’ve been working hard to de-escalate this conflict and get punitive tariffs removed on both sides of the Atlantic ,” she said.
“These tariffs are damaging on both sides of the Atlantic. Today we are seeing the confirmation hearing of the new US Trade Representative [Tai] and as soon as that is finished I will be on the phone to her seeking an early resolution of these issues.”
Truss will also likely speak to Tai about ongoing negotiations for a UK-US trade deal, which is believed to be around half-way done.
City A.M. reported last month that the UK will try to add environmental and climate change provisions in trade negotiations in an attempt to get a deal over the line with Biden’s administration.