On Monday (and with a Tuesday tweet for good measure), the Trump administration proposed more tariffs — this time on $11 billion worth of goods from the European Union. The reason? EU subsidies for airline manufacturer Airbus.
There could be some merit to lashing out at EU support for Airbus. But the U.S. has plenty of its own subsidies and anti-competitive buddy-buddy relations between the government and U.S. manufacturers like Boeing. The World Trade Organization has ruled that the U.S. too had provided billions in subsidies as well. It determined in March that the U.S. had failed to remove some of those subsidies. Moreover, the EU is still waiting on a determination from the trade body as to its right to retaliate against the U.S.
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