A dispute broke out between the EU and the USA in 2018 due to illegal subsidies for aircraft manufacturers. This dispute has consequences for the foreign trade of both, as punitive tariffs were also levied on goods that have no connection to the starting point of the conflict.
For example, import duties on confectionery imported into the USA from the EU were increased to 25 percent. The inevitably associated price increases meant that the entire German confectionery industry lost 30 percent of sales in the USA in the first two quarters of 2020. As a company whose most important sales markets include the USA and which has correspondingly strong trading relationships there, the Lambertz Group is also feeling the effects: recently, sales generated in the USA fell from 28 to 26 million euros.
In subsequent reports, Dr. Hermann Bühlbecker,as a representative of the German economy, comments on the topic:
- ARD: tagesthemen from November 9, 2020
- WDR: Current hour from November 8, 2020
- WirtschaftsWoche: “Germany is facing a tough test” from November 4, 2020
- ARD: plusminus from November 4th, 2020
- mdr: “How much Trump’s customs policy has hurt German companies” from November 3, 2020
- Die Welt : “Luckily we have print weather” from October 14, 2020
- Deutsche Welle: “US punitive tariffs hit the industry hard” from September 18, 2020.