Airbus A380 production halt to fuel transatlantic trade spat

Airbus’s decision to shut production of the A380 looks set to reignite a translatlantic trade row over mutual claims of illegal aircraft subsidies, even as Airbus implements a two-year plan to stop making the world’s largest airliner. The planemaker announced the shutdown on Thursday due to weak sales, eliminating a model at the heart of a record trade dispute between the EU and US over government support for Airbus and Boeing. After 15 years and thousands of pages of arguments, the two sides are locked in arbitration proceedings at the WTO to determine the amount of harm each has caused through support, a possible precursor to sanctions. The WTO’s appeals body last year said the EU had failed to remove subsidized government development loans for the world’s largest airliner, the A380, and Europe’s newest long-haul jet, the A350, causing losses for Boeing and US workers. Now, the EU is preparing to argue to the WTO that A380 subsidies no longer exist because the aircraft is being taken off the market, said a European source familiar with the case.<br/>