The office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) won a significant victory yesterday in the long dispute with the European Union over aerospace subsidies.
La WTO Appellate Body announced a reversal of last November's ruling on prohibiting subsidies against an incentive for the production of Boeing 777X in Washington State. He also confirmed the previous rejection of EU complaints against the remaining incentives. Today's ruling confirms that the taxation regime that Boeing and the others received in Washington is not a prohibited subsidy.
In addition to reversing the previous incentive ruling, the new ruling puts an end to the most recent of the two WTO lawsuits that Europe has brought against the United States in retaliation for the successful US battle against the huge subsidies that the European government has provided to Airbus.
"The WTO has rejected yet another of the unfounded accusations that the European Union has made, attempting to divert attention from the 22 billions of dollars of subsidies that the European government has provided to Airbus and that the WTO has considered illegalSaid Boeing General Counsel J. Michael Luttig. "The European Union will have no further appeal to today's decision," he added.
"The last of the false accusations that Airbus and its government sponsors have now moved has been rejected by the WTO. The European Union and Airbus, meanwhile, continue to be in flagrant violation of the WTO rules and must eliminate the huge illegal subsidies that the WTO declared a year ago not to have been destined, or risk American sanctions against European exports"Said Luttig.
"Airbus has long been putting European tax payers' money at risk through unsecured loans that they have created and continue to support the company. Now Airbus and its government sponsors are putting other European exporters at risk of US sanctions, blatantly ignoring WTO rulings and bringing counterclaims that have no legal or factual basis against the United States", Added Luttig.
"Instead, Boeing supported the US government's actions to fulfill WTO obligations. We support and facilitate changes in Boeing contracts with NASA and the US Department of Defense for R&D work that the WTO has found inconsistent with its regulations".
"This was an overwhelming and transparent victory for the United States", Added Luttig. "It is now up to the European Union to respect the WTO's decisions regarding and end the long practice of state aid, which Airbus government supporters have continued to provide to all Airbus models".
(photo: Airbus)
