In light of the trade war between the US and the EU, the tariffs seem to be affecting Greece’s most buoyant export sectors, its canned peach, Reuters reports. The increase in tariffs came into effect on October 18, when Greeks were ready to ship 50 million tins to US markets.
The Trump Administration imposed an additional 25% tariff on a variety of European products in retaliation for EU aircraft subsidies, hits products from Scotch to Italian cheeses and French wines.
Keeping in mind that Greece is the biggest exporter of tinned peaches on a global scale, one fifth of its 250,000 tonnes annual production is absorbed by the U.S. market.
According to Reuters, formerly subject to an import levy of 18%, the new tariffs will increase the total import duty to the United States to 43%.
This has a negative impact to people of Northern Greece; For instance, peach farmer Tasos Halkidis quoted to Reuters that “Trump would do well to behave himself and let us get to work so we can have a livelihood … We don’t want this tariff business.”
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In addition, 63-year-old Kostas Apostolou, head of the Greek Canners Association, commented that this trade dispute is affecting their livelihood, with the potential to extinguish them from their biggest market.
Producers further stated that after the tariffs many are those, from the military, to schools and hospitals, that have already cancelled orders or said that they will not be able to pay any tariff.
In the meantime, Greek producers will be left with 3kg tins that were supposed to be transmitted to the US, because they can not be sold in the EU or Asia or Latin America where 1-kg tins are dispatched.
Moreover, the Canners Association added that they will lose about $50 million, which although is a small amount in terms of global trade, it is of a great importance of Greece.
Eleftherios Saitis, who built one of the first can factories in the early 1970s, commented that this situation is shocking.
The tariffs that the US imposes in its trade with other countries have also affected China, as Eurasia ranked the US-China tensions at the second place of the top risks the world would encounter in 2019. Following, China imposed tariffs on US crude oil that they imported as a reply to President Trump’s tariffs.
