The U.S. and the EU agreed to suspend tariffs that arose as a result of the Boeing and Airbus disputes, affecting Spanish citrus.

President of the United States, Joe Biden, and President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, had a conversation over the phone in which they agreed to the cessation of the tariffs.

"As the symbol of this new beginning, President Biden and I agreed to suspend all imposed tariffs in the context of the dispute by Airbus and Boeing, both for aircraft as well as non-aircraft products, for an initial period of four months," Von der Leyen said in a statement.

Local media reported that the leaders pledged to work on solving the dispute, which impacted Valencian citrus with additional tariffs of up to 25 percent.

"This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic and a very positive sign for economic cooperation in the coming years," Von der Leyen said.

The suspension of the tariffs will be effective as soon as the two parties finish the necessary internal procedures, Levante reported.

The Unió de Llauradors i Ramaders described the temporary suspension of tariffs as positive for the agricultural sector of the Valencian Community and expressed their hope that the situation will be solved and return to normal exports to the U.S.

CastellónPlaza reported, "the organization criticizes that once again a conflict alien to agrarian interests, such as the disputes of aeronautical companies Airbus (EU) and Boeing (USA), has hurt the sector since October 2019".

In this context, the association took advantage of requesting a new export protocol for citrus to the U.S. as "the current one is harsh and it costs a lot of money to send fruit that complies with established conditions".

The organization said: "it is therefore not surprising that our citrus exports in the U.S. have progressively fallen over the last few seasons from 60,000 tons in 2010-11 to 9,000 tons in 2018-19. Prior to the imposition of new tariffs, only 45 tons were counted in the 2019-20 season."

"The return of our exports will not be an easy task since we must regain trust and, in addition, mainly Morocco and Chile have benefited from our displacement from the U.S. market," it said.