Otter Commercial Services

This week it was announced that the tariffs levied on food and beverage products from the UK and EU would be suspended for five years. For an industry that relies on global supply chains, and which was already strained by the pandemic, this comes as very welcome news.

Imposed in October 2019 by the WTO due to a dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing, these tariffs have impacted every bar and restaurant relying on these products for their menus by causing them to search for new suppliers without significantly increasing costs or delivery times. As Sean Kennedy of the National Restaurant Association noted, they were “...punishing American restaurants and consumers, not the governments or industries involved in the dispute. Following the challenges of the pandemic, these tariffs would only have served to cause deeper harm and threaten industry recovery.”

According to the European Commission, US businesses importing these goods paid $2.2 billion in tariffs in 2019 and 2020. No longer having the burden of factoring in this additional 25% cost will be a relief as the hospitality industry works to recover.