Monday, May 19, 2014

The flights take off once again - Subsidies dispute back into action

I thought the Boeing-Airbus Subsidies dispute at the WTO had reached the final stages of issues of compliance. 

I have blogged about the dispute here, here and here. But if Reuters is to be believed there is some fresh ammunition for the EU against alleged subsidies that US is giving to Boeing for its latest aircraft.
"The European Union is considering raising the pressure on the United States in the world's largest trade dispute by challenging tax breaks that encouraged planemaker Boeing (BA.N) to keep production of its latest jet in Washington state, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. 
The potential move would open a tense new phase in the decade-old formal trade dispute over aircraft industry aid, as Brussels and Washington argue about whether they have complied with rulings by the World Trade Organization, which in turn could set the tone for sanctions. 
Both the EU and United States claimed victory when the WTO ruled between 2010 and 2012 that billions of dollars of support for Boeing and European rival Airbus (AIR.PA), in a pair of cases spanning thousands of pages but lacking a final resolution."
The two subsidy cases highlight the role played by "Subsidies" in supporting local industry, the complexity of dispute settlement process at the WTO, the issue of compliance of decisions at the WTO as well as the efficacy of the process itself.

Over to the Article 21.5 compliance process to assess the new claim?

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