Aircraft Fight Barrels Ahead As EU Requests Boeing Compliance Panel

摘要

The European Union yesterday (Oct. 11) took the next step in its fight against U.S. government subsidies provided to the Boeing Company by requesting the formation of a World Trade Organization panel that will determine whether the U.S. has complied with an earlier ruling faulting it for violating international subsidies rules. At the same time, U.S. and EU officials disclosed that a compliance panel examining whether the EU has ended its subsidies to Airbus or removed their effects is examining a U.S. claim that the EU's compliance obligations should include ending the launch aid for the A3 50 airplane. The launch aid for the development of this plane was not covered in the final WTO ruling in the Airbus case, and the EU has so far dismissed the U.S. claim as too expansive. In the Boeing dispute, the EU requested a compliance panel under Article 21.5 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) less than a month after asking for Article 21.5 consultations with the United States over what it said was a U.S. failure to comply with the Appellate Body's March ruling by the Sept. 23 deadline. Bilateral consultations held as a result of that request failed to resolve the dispute, the European Commission said in an Oct. 11 statement.