America, as the champion of free trade, has been screaming 'foul' on state help for Airbus for years. But does it have a case? Lee Hibbert finds that things may be very far from what they seem. The thought of a full-scale trade war between Europe and the US over a fruit so foolish in appearance as the banana would be hugely comical if it didn't indicate deeper running tensions in other more lucrative markets. In the aerospace sector, relations between Europe and the US have been at breaking point for some time. In 1997, the two sides clashed acrimoniously over the proposed mega-merger of US giants Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. Since then, European planemaker Airbus has been stealing market share from Boeing, leaving the Seattle-based company complaining bitterly about price cutting.
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