EU appeals WTO ruling over Airbus subsidies

The EU on Oct. 13 formally appealed a WTO ruling issued in September that states sponsors of Toulouse-based Airbus Group did not properly remove illegal subsidies for building large civil aircraft. The appeal, which was expected, continues one of two WTO disputes between the leading aircraft OEMs at least well into 2017. A Sept. 22 ruling upheld a US-Boeing complaint that Europe had not properly remedied up to $22b it provided Airbus in improperly funded state aid, including almost $5b additionally provided for launching the new A350. In its appeal, the EU stressed that the WTO agreed with some of its points in this particular case. “However, significant aspects of the compliance panel report cannot be regarded as satisfactory,” officials said. “The EU in particular disagrees with the legal conclusion that, even though most of the subsidies challenged by the US have ended, the EU has not yet fully complied with the previous ruling,” they added. Officials indicated they would argue in their appeal that the WTO compliance panel did not correctly define the elements that would determine whether the loans to Airbus for the A350 XWB model were subsidized. Specifically, the EU is contesting some of the elements proposed by the panel to determine what a proper market benchmark would be for the loans, which then determines how far off the EU was, if at all. The EU also believes the panel made “several errors” in assessing the alleged harm that such subsidies caused to Boeing.<br/>