AP Interview: France wants Biden to calm trade disputes

PARIS (AP) — France’s trade minister hopes that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden acts soon to calm trade tensions fueled by Donald Trump, which have led to escalating trans-Atlantic tariffs hitting billions of dollars worth of wine, planes and other goods.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, French Trade Minister Franck Riester accused the U.S. under Trump of threatening global commerce by blocking the appointment of the World Trade Organization’s next director, and urged Biden to break the logjam.

“I hope we are going to be able to rebuild the trans-Atlantic relationship with the Biden administration,” Riester said. He said France is “optimistic” about the Biden presidency, and welcomed Biden’s pledges to re-join the 2015 Paris climate accord and other multilateral organizations that Trump snubbed.

With the U.S. and European economies hammered by the pandemic, Riester said, “We are mobilized for dialogue at all levels ... for de-escalation, to ensure that we are no longer in this trade tension.”

Some 16 million workers on both sides of the Atlantic have jobs supported by EU-U.S. trade, and tariffs over the past four years have hit companies and people making and selling a wide range of goods.

But some trade tensions predated Trump, and may not be quick to resolve – notably a years-long conflict over subsidies to plane makers Boeing and Airbus that has led to tit-for-tat tariffs.

“On the Airbus-Boeing dispute, we would withdraw the tariffs that the World Trade Organization has just allowed us to impose from the moment the United States withdraw theirs,” Riester said, suggesting it’s up to the U.S. to make the first move.

The European Union on Tuesday started imposing tariffs on up to $4 billion worth of U.S. goods as part of...