EU in beroep tegen WTO-besluit Airbus (en)
The EU is to file an appeal against the World Trade Organisation's i ruling on a US complaint that state subsidies for the aerospace giant Airbus are illegal and detrimental to its main competitor, Boeing.
A WTO panel on 30 June ruled that Europe's Airbus consortium benefited from illegal subsidies as the support schemes paid by Britain, Germany and Spain for the A380 jumbo jet were linked to export performance - meaning as long as the company has contracts to sell products abroad, they receive subsidies - a measure prohibited under international trade rules.
The US called last month's WTO's decision "a landmark victory".
The European Commission will appeal the ruling, along with the finding that Boeing has lost its market leader position since 2003 due to Airbus' state support scheme.
"While the report sides with the EU in rejecting a significant number of US claims, there are other aspects of the report which need to be corrected or clarified," EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht i said in a statement.
Brussels also considers that infrastructure made available to Airbus in Hamburg, Bremen and Toulouse are not illegal subsidies from the German and French governments.
"This dispute is too important to allow the legal misinterpretations of the panel to go unchallenged," Mr De Gucht said. "Not appealing would allow for an unhelpful precedent for the WTO membership as a whole."
Under WTO rules, a decision by the appellate body should be made within 90 days, but it delays even further the solution of a six-year long dispute between the two arch rivals.
A counter-complaint, filed by the EU against the US on alleged illegal subsidies received by Boeing from the federal government, is still pending in the WTO court, after the organisation last month announced its verdict will be delayed till mid-September, to the "dissappointment" of the EU.
"The time lag between this case, and the United States' case against support to Airbus has constantly increased over the six years this dispute has been running and the gap is now at nearly a year," the commission said in a statement earlier this month.
"It creates the wrong impression that Airbus has received some WTO incompatible support, whereas Boeing has not. Only when we have received both panel reports will both sides have a more complete picture of the dispute," it said.
The two rulings are seen as industry-defining guidelines, watched with interest by new competitors from China and other emerging economies.
The WTO verdicts are also likely to affect the current race between the two companies for a $35 billion (€27 billion) contract to build a fleet of 179 new tankers for the US Air Force. The new fleet of Boeing jets would replace the current aging fleet, some of which have been in service since the Eisenhower era.
On Saturday, Louis Gallois, chief executive of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), said that his company plans to "fight like hell" to win the contract.
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