Boeing hails favourable WTO ruling, slams illegal Airbus subsidies

Boeing hailed a ruling handed down by the World Trade Organisation in its favour while at the same time slamming what it said were “flagrant” breaches of existing law by archrival Airbus.

On Monday, the global trade watchdog’s appellate body confirmed a reversal of last November's prohibited subsidy ruling against a tax incentive for the production of the Boeing 777X in Washington state.

According to the Chicago-based aerospace giant, the new ruling ended the most recent of two cases brought against it by the European Union in retaliation for the successful US challenge of the massive subsidies that some European governments were continuing to provide to Airbus.

For Boeing General Counsel J. Michael Luttig, the EU’s claims were a smokescreen meant to distract attention from the $22bn of illegal funding provided to Airbus which the Geneva-based arbiter had already found to be illegal.

In contrast, Boeing stressed how it had "supported and facilitated" changes to its contracts with NASA and the Pentagon for research and development work which the trade body had found to be inconsistent with its rules.

Luttig added that no further appeal to Monday's decision was available to Brussels.

"The latest of the false claims Airbus and its government sponsors have made has now been rejected by the WTO. The EU and Airbus, meanwhile, continue to be in flagrant breach of WTO rulings and must eliminate the massive illegal subsidies the WTO said a full year ago had not been addressed, or risk U.S. sanctions against European exports."