Employees work on the exterior of a Boeing Co Dreamliner 787 plane at the company's mid-body operations facility in North Charleston, South Carolina, the United States, on Dec 6, 2016. (TRAVIS DOVE / BLOOMBERG)

European Union (EU) trade ministers gave the go-ahead for EU tariffs on US$4 billion of American goods in retaliation over illegal aid to Boeing Co, seeking to prod the United States to scrap its duties prompted by unlawful subsidies to Airbus SE.

The green light paves the way for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm in Brussels, to trigger the import levies on Monday. US aircraft-related products as well as other goods ranging from spirits and nuts to handbags and chemicals were included on the bloc’s planned target list last month.

We are exercising our rights. We are ready to withdraw or suspend our tariffs anytime when the US is ready to do so.

Valdis Dombrovskis, European trade commissioner

European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis announced the planned retaliation at a press briefing after the EU ministerial video conference. The decision will be published in the official journal at 5 pm and the tariffs will come into effect on Tuesday.

“We are exercising our rights,” Dombrovskis said. “We are ready to withdraw or suspend our tariffs anytime when the US is ready to do so.”

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The imminent tariff strike is meant to give the EU more leverage in pushing for a truce that has been elusive with US President Donald Trump. The tit-for-tat move may make it easier for US Democrat Joe Biden, who has been projected to the US presidency, to embrace longstanding European calls to settle the transatlantic dispute over aircraft aid at the negotiating table.

For the past year, the EU has faced US tariffs on US$7.5 billion of European goods after Washington won a World Trade Organization case against market-distorting aid to Airbus. Last month, in a parallel 16-year-old lawsuit, the EU received final WTO permission to hit US$4 billion of American products with duties over unfair subsidies to Boeing.

READ MORE: Sources: WTO backs EU tariffs on US$4b US goods over Boeing

The WTO damages award in the Boeing case came months later than the EU had hoped, complicating its deliberations as a result of the proximity of the Nov 3 US election. 

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier echoed Dombrovskis on Monday in urging the US to enter into talks on a settlement of the aircraft-aid row, telling reporters “we remain ready at any time to put a negotiated solution in place.”

Trump threat

Trump has pledged to counter-retaliate and “strike much harder” if the EU imposes its duties.

To date, the US has refrained from applying the maximum tariff level in the US$7.5 billion damages award from the WTO last year. That ruling led the Trump administration to impose 15 percent tariffs on Airbus aircraft and 25 percent levies on an array of European exports including French wine, Scotch whisky and Spanish olives.

Washington could raise those import taxes to 100 percent, which for many European products would effectively block their entry into the US marketplace.

Dombrovskis said on Monday that the levels of the EU duties would “mirror” the US levies.