WTO rules against the European Union in landmark Airbus, Boeing judgement
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The World Trade Organisation ruled on Tuesday the European Union had ignored requests to halt all subsidies to plane maker Airbus, prompting the United States to threaten sanctions against European products unless the EU stops “harming U.S. interests”.
The Financial Times argues that the ruling, which clears the way for what could be the largest retaliatory action in WTO history, also risks exacerbating growing trade tensions between the EU and US over a range of issues, from threatened US steel tariffs to Washington’s pledge to crack down on European companies doing business in Iran following Donald Trump’s withdrawal last week from a 2015 nuclear accord.
The WTO’s appeals body on Tuesday upheld a 2016 ruling that the EU has failed to eliminate billions in illegal aid to Airbus on two aircraft — the A380 superjumbo and the A350 twin aisle jet.
The WTO said the EU had failed to remove support in the form of preferential government loans for the world’s largest airliner, the A380, and Europe’s newest long-haul plane, the A350, causing losses for Boeing and U.S. aerospace workers.
However, the Geneva watchdog dismissed U.S. claims that loans for Airbus’s most popular models, the A320 and A330, were costing Boeing significant sales and in so doing narrowed the scope of one of the world’s longest and costliest trade spats.
