Aerospace walks trade tightrope as EU mulls tariff response

Aerospace firms sought to contain a minefield of pressures on Thursday after an Airbus-led body urged the European Union to hit back against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and one of Europe's biggest airlines warned of higher fares. Aircraft, engines, spare parts and components from landing gear to seats face higher costs and planning for the peak summer travel season could be disrupted as Brussels mulls a response, industry experts warned. "It will be chaos. It creates massive demand uncertainty as airlines plan their network schedules," Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at UK-based Cirium Ascend, said. Trump on Wednesday imposed sweeping tariffs on U.S. imports including 20% on EU goods and 10% on imports from Britain, home to engine maker Rolls-Royce. The move went further than many investors and executives had expected, rattling a $150b-a-year jet industry that is an important contributor to the global economy. Dominant planemakers Airbus, headquartered in France, and its U.S. rival Boeing have been a lightning rod for trade tensions for years, waging a subsidy dispute at the World Trade Organisation led by their governments for 17 years until a five-year truce was declared in 2021. But with supply chains still not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, insiders say both companies are reluctant to put fragile efforts to rebuild the industry at risk by fuelling a wider trade war. France's aerospace industry has written to the European Commission calling for "proportionate and assertive" countermeasures if the new U.S. tariffs cause significant damage, a person familiar with the matter said.<br/>