The European Commission asks to establish a compliance panel for the US to withdraw its tariffs on Spanish black olives

Spain and the EC are open to reaching an understanding

Spain and the EU consider that the US has so far failed to comply with the ruling of the WTO Panel and continues to apply illegitimate tariffs that expel Spanish olive exporters from the US market.

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La European Commission has requested the establishment of a compliance panel to evaluate the measures taken by EE. UU to comply with the report of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel, which ruled against US tariffs on ripe Spanish olives.

 

The objective of the compliance procedure is to demand that the US comply with the ruling of the Panel of the WTO and therefore eliminate their tariffs on Spanish black olives.

 

“From the Government of Spain and from the European Commission we remain open to reaching an understanding with the United States to always safeguard the interest of our farmers,” declared the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez.

 

Once established, the compliance panel will have 90 days to issue a final award. If the US fails to comply with this final award or decides to appeal the compliance panel's report to no avail, the EU could consider retaliatory measures.

 

Background

 

The US imposed countervailing duties on imports of black olives from the EU in 2018 based on claims that were found to be mostly erroneous by a WTO Panel report adopted in December 2021. The US announced its intention to implement the Panel's recommendations and resolutions and claimed to have completed this implementation in January 2023.

 

However, the EU did not agree and requested consultations with the USaddress the matter in April 2023; These consultations did not result in any progress towards resolving the dispute. The compliance panel requested by the EU today is the next step under the WTO's procedural framework in ongoing dispute settlement proceedings.