News Releases

No. 11/07
February 9, 2007

EU FILES FIRST WRITTEN SUBMISSION IN U.S. WTO CASE AGAINST AIRBUS SUPPORT

The European Union has today submitted its first written submission in the US WTO challenge to EU government support to Airbus. The EU's submission is a robust response to the various allegations made by the US in its first written submission and corrects a number of errors, distortions and mischaracterizations in the US submission. The EU's first written submission is not public at this time, but the EU intends to make a non-confidential version of its first written submission available to the public in due course.

The first Panel meeting regarding the US challenge to EU support for Airbus is scheduled to take place on 20-21 March 2007. The Parties have agreed that parts of the hearing should be open to the public in the interest of maximum transparency. After another round of submissions and hearings, the issuance of the final Panel report to the Parties is due on 31 October 2007 (but could slip into 2008, as it has in other complex cases).

In March 2007 the EU will bring to the table its own claims against the US and its massive subsidization of Boeing at state and federal level in a separate WTO dispute (DS353 – United States – Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft).

See Also: http://www.eurunion.org/newsweb/HotTopics/AricraftSubsidies.htm

For more information on the Boeing-Airbus WTO dispute visit:
http://www.eurunion.org/newsweb/HotTopics/AricraftSubsidies.htm 

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds316_e.htm 

For information on the EC-US 1992 Large Civil Aircraft Agreement, see : http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2004/october/tradoc_119237.pdf 

Further Contact Information
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