GENEVA – The United States asked the World Trade Organization to determine whether new European Union subsidies to Airbus violate international trade rules, widening the issues being examined in the long-running dispute over government assistance to the European plane manufacturer and its U.S.-based rival Boeing.
A new $9.2 million grant by the Welsh Assembly to help train new workers for the Airbus A350 is effectively a new subsidy to the plane maker and supplements launch aid subsidies already announced by European Union member states, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said.
“Unfortunately, the EU member states have continued to grant new subsidies to Airbus, even as our WTO case proceeds. By taking this step, we are ensuring that the new subsidies will be included in our case,” Portman said in a statement.
The EU also asked the WTO to set up a panel to rule on similar claims on what Brussels says are government subsidies to Boeing Co. The United States blocked the establishment of that panel on Thursday, but if Brussels makes a second request, Washington cannot block it a second time.
“The panel request will clarify the wide range of U.S. government support for Boeing that will be subject to the panel hearing,” said Peter Power, spokesman for EU trade chief Peter Mandelson. “The U.S. refused to cooperate fully with legitimate requests for documents and answers to written questions on elements of the U.S. subsidy regime for Boeing.”
The United States filed a WTO complaint against Airbus aid in 2004, and Brussels retaliated with a countersuit targeting subsidies to Chicago-based Boeing.
Washington had also warned that a decision to grant aid for the planned A350 jet – a fuel-efficient aircraft aimed at trans-Atlantic flights, designed to rival Boeing’s 787 – would make it harder to negotiate an end to the dispute. The A350 is set to enter service in 2010, two years after the Boeing plane.
“We still believe that a negotiated solution is possible,” Portman said. “But one way or another, the subsidies need to end.”
The U.S. request to the WTO also provides additional information about other continuing EU subsidies that are already included in the case at the global commerce body, Portman’s office said in a statement,
“The United States is providing these additional details in order to address certain procedural questions that the EU has raised and thereby narrow the issues that the WTO panel will need to consider,” the statement said.
“For almost two years, the United States has been seeking to negotiate an end to subsidies for large civil aircraft,” Portman added. “We continue to prefer a negotiated solution.”
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