Airbus and Boeing after opposing the decision of the WTO
Airbus and Boeing are competing on public aid for the next generation of commercial aircraft in Europe after the decision by the World Trade Organization (WTO) over European subsidies to Airbus.
The two aircraft manufacturers have each claimed victory by highlighting their points favorably in the review of 1,000 pages issued Wednesday by the WTO, which ordered the European countries to remove certain subsidies provided to Airbus for its A380 superjumbo .
The organization also criticized other government aid, a lower amount, in favor of other models produced by Airbus, but rejected several points raised by the U.S. side.
The United States believes that the opinion of the WTO shows that the states of the European Union (EU) should not offer more loans to development for the future Airbus A350, which are central to the initial conflict .
Boeing also believes that his competitor must repay about four billion dollars (3.2 billion euros) in loans for the A380 or restructure them into commercial loans.
Airbus rejects these two points.The European aircraft manufacturer said that the WTO panel that made the report did not indicate the amount of subsidies to readjust, or accused the European Group for hiding the EU funding system as a whole, only certain details.
AIRBUS: "BOEING TAKES HIS DESIRES FOR REALITY"
"Boeing is its wishful thinking (…), the A350 is not affected by the outcome of the WTO.Together with the four states (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), we move at full speed, "said Rainer Ohler, communications director of Airbus.
Boeing believes his side a legal principle has been established.
"The continuation of projects to provide four to five billion dollars of public money to Airbus for the A350 to different conditions from those of the market is not only unacceptable but prohibited by the WTO ruling," said a Spokesman for the U.S. group.
"It is really time that Airbus soars with his own wings.It is a company ripe, the world's largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft with cash of nearly nine billion euros, "he added
"He is perfectly capable of using its own cash and to use commercial loans to finance development of its aircraft."
In its report, the "special" WTO said Wednesday that Airbus could launch a series of civilian aircraft thanks to subsidies from the EU and member states as France, the Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Without this aid, Airbus has been a very different company and much less powerful, the report said.
The United States believes that loans to Airbus were with special rules and illegally export related, which belies the EU.
The issue of reimbursement of past public assistance is a sore point – the question is whether the WTO decisions are truly authoritative.
No funding has never been repaid, underscore lawyers.In principle, business decisions are not retroactive.
Nevertheless, the EU should use the WTO ruling within 30 days.
"We're pretty optimistic that an appeal from the EU has a good chance to succeed and resolve the many issues that we do not understand in the current report," said Rainer Ohler.
EADS, Airbus's parent company, closed in fall of 2.87%, to 16.385 euros, while around 16:00 GMT, Boeing yielded 1.4%, to 61.87 dollars.