Lamy, Zoellick to discuss Boeing-Airbus row next week

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The top trade officials from the United States and the European Union will discuss a row over state subsidies accorded US aircraft manufacturer Boeing and European rival Airbus at a meeting here October 18, a European Commission spokeswoman said.
She said US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy will take part in an event organized by the Friends of Europe association and will have a working session as well.
"They will inevitably bring up the Boeing-Airbus dispute," spokeswoman Arancha Gonzalez added.
Lamy's term as trade commissioner ends October 31 while sources in Washington have said Zoellick would likely leave his post after the US presidential election November 2 regardless of the outcome.
Lamy earlier Wednesday said Airbus believed it would benefit from a US decision to take the subsidy dispute to the WTO, since the move will destabilize Boeing's development of the 7E7 commercial aircraft.
"The Americans crossed the Rubicon to go the WTO, which delights Airbus," he told journalists.
"They (Airbus) are very happy. None of their aircraft is affected by the complaint while (state) funds have not yet been made available for the 7E7."
The United States and the European Union, at odds over state assistance to Boeing and Airbus, last week filed separate requests for consultations on a 1992 bilateral accord at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization.
The 1992 agreement governs state subsidies to the aircraft manufacturing industry on both sides of the Atlantic, but Boeing and Airbus have accused each other of flouting its provisions.
Lamy said Airbus had pressed the EU executive commission to act when the volume of government support for Boeing's new 7E7 became known.
He added that the commission "had taken the decision that we could allow the 7E7 to go ahead while Airbus was developing its A350," a plane that will compete with the Boeing product.
"Even if Airbus is happy to see the 7E7 disrupted, I myself would not have launched this dispute. The Americans did it for me."
Earlier in the day a senior Boeing official said the WTO's dispute settlement procedure could be the venue for fresh US-EU negotiations on a new subsidy agreement.
"We want to get back to get negotiations going and there is a beautiful system for that -- the first phase at the WTO," Jorris Vos, responsible for Boeing's relations with the EU and NATO, told AFP.
The initial phase of the WTO procedure calls for 60 days of consultations, which if unsuccessful give way to an adversarial encounter before a WTO arbitration panel.
"We want to make (it) absolutely clear -- we will do everything to prevent having to go to the next stage," Vos said.
He added that a new subsidy agreement "should be equitable, which we feel 1992 is not, and it should be transparent, which 1992 is not."
"What we should do is sit down and write an agreement that for both sides is acceptable."