German biscuit manufacturers suffer from US punitive tariffs
German biscuit and bakery product manufacturers are suffering considerably from the 25 percent penalty tariffs on sweet pastries imposed by the USA in retaliation for Airbus subsidies. Exports to the USA fell by 30 percent in the first half of the year, the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI) reported on Thursday. So far, the USA has been the most important market outside the EU for manufacturers of fine baked goods.
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"From one day to the next and through no fault of their own, the medium-sized, mainly family-run companies lost an essential market that they had laboriously built up and developed over decades," complained Andreas Nickenig, chairman of the BDSI's Fine Baked Goods division. This also endangers jobs in Germany. For many companies, the US business is important for the capacity utilisation of their production facilities.
In the trade dispute between the USA and the EU, Washington had imposed fines on European foodstuffs such as wine, cheese, butter and olive oil at the end of 2019, after industrial products such as steel and aluminium. Certain bakery products were and are also affected by this.
America sees the move as retaliation for illegal EU subsidies for the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the main rival of the US manufacturer Boeing.
The bakery producers were disappointed by the policy. In the latest proceedings to amend the list of punitive tariffs, it had become clear that Germany was focusing on industrial goods. France and Italy had shown much more commitment to their food sector. The association pleaded for the establishment of a European compensation fund to compensate uninvolved industries in disputes such as the Airbus dispute. Countries such as the USA and China already had corresponding instruments in place.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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