Airbus, Boeing both claim victory in WTO case
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Airbus and Boeing have both declared victory following the recent World Trade Organization’s (WTO) ruling on illegal government subsidies.
Although the official ruling is yet to be officially divulged, both aircraft manufacturers released statements yesterday detailing parts of the WTO judgment in a case that has rumbled on for several years.
Boeing claimed that the WTO panel has rejected “the vast majority of Europe’s claims” of the US government granting illegal subsidies to the Chicago-based planemaker, and said compared that Airbus was hit with much harsher penalties for the financial assistance it received from European governments.
“Nothing in today’s reports even begins to compare to the US$20 billion (INR1,471 arab) in illegal subsidies that the WTO found last June that Airbus/EADS has received,” the Boeing statement said.
“Under the WTO’s decisions, Airbus must now compete in the global marketplace without the massive illegal subsidies it has received since its inception and without which, the WTO held, Airbus would be ‘a much different, and we believe a much weaker’ company than it is today,” it added.
Airbus meanwhile, responded with its own victorious statement, claiming that the WTO ruling “confirms that Boeing has received massive and illegal government subsidies for many decades”.
It added that the ruling will say that Boeing has received at least US$5 billion of US taxpayer dollars, and that it would not have been able to launch the 787 Dreamliner without illegal subsidies.
Hopes that the case may now be resolved however, appear premature. An Airbus spokesperson said the company expects that the dispute would “carry on for several more years”.
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