APNewsBreak: Officials say WTO rules against EU aid to Airbus, in trade victory for Boeing, US

APNewsBreak: Officials say WTO condemns Airbus aid

GENEVA — The World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday that European governments unfairly financed Airbus and harmed the fortunes of rival U.S. plane maker Boeing, officials said, even as the France-based Airbus claimed it won.

Three officials with knowledge of the confidential WTO ruling said it upheld findings of an interim decision handed down last September that faulted European governments for providing Airbus with subsidies through risk-free loans, research funding and infrastructure support.

Airbus, however, said “70 percent of the U.S. claims were rejected” and that the WTO panel dismissed Boeing’s claim that its performance suffered as a result of European subsidies. In that case, it would be a victory for Airbus and the European Union ahead of a possible June ruling on alleged U.S. subsidies to The Boeing Co.

While the WTO’s report won’t halt European subsidies for Airbus, the two disputes could provide tighter guidelines for how far governments can go in supporting companies in a market worth more than $3 trillion over the next two decades.

With emerging powers such as China looking to break the two-company dominance of the airliner industry, clearer rules on public support will become even more important in the future.

The three officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ruling. One official represented neither party in the dispute.

One official said the WTO panel found that Europe was, in some cases, unfairly subsidizing Airbus through “launch aid” because the planemaker only repays the loans as new planes are sold. For some planes, however, the U.S. failed to demonstrate that the subsidies actually harmed Boeing, a key requirement for proving wrongdoing.

The Geneva trade body can’t force countries or companies to eliminate subsidies, but it can authorize retaliatory sanctions against countries that fail to comply with rulings. It generally takes years to reach that stage, and based on the record slowness of this case, sanctions could be more than a decade away.