BRUSSELS (AFP) - The United States still wants to strike a new accord with the European Union on public aid to aircraft giants Boeing and Airbus despite tit-for-tat suits to the WTO, a US official said.
Holding out the possibility that the row could yet be resolved outside the World Trade Organization (WTO), he also dismissed suggestions that the US action was politically driven ahead of November elections.
"Our goal remains a new agreement beneficial to both sides," said the senior official from Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's office, in a conference call with reporters.
He was speaking after Washington and Brussels both announced appeals to the WTO Wednesday to settle the row over subsidies to European aircraft maker Airbus and US rival Boeing.
"In a matter of such complexity, it is our priority to have a new bilateral agreement," he said, adding: "It is by no means unprecedented for those matters to be resolved before going to" the WTO.
"Our aim is clear, it is to end the subsidies," he said.
As well as announcing WTO action Wednesday, Washington also abandoned a 1992 transatlantic air subsidies accord, which the EU and US had recently failed to renegotiate.
The US official added: "There has been a lot of speculation that US action in these matters is driven by our election, but quite frankly it is the opposite," he said.
"The (European) Commission has decided by itself that this is an election year issue," he said, apparently referring to EU officials' comments about the timing of the US action.
EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy's spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez declined to comment on any election link, and echoed the US official's comments on hopes that the dispute could still be resolved amicably.
While saying that "we are confident that in this case ... we have chance of winning," she added that: "We are just at the stage of confrontation. It doesn't mean that there will be a case."
The bitter transatlantic dogfight is reaching new heights as Boeing and Airbus struggle to launch competing models for the market of mid-sized, long-range passenger aircraft.
Boeing is counting on its superefficient 7E7 design to gain the upper hand while Airbus is fighting back with its planned A350.