US, Europe take aviation spat to WTO next week

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and Europe will discuss a spat over state subsidies to Airbus and Boeing at the World Trade Organization next week, a US official said.
"We have agreed on the consultation days between the European Union and the United States," a spokesman for the US Trade Representative's office, Richard Mills, said.
The US complaint over European subsidies to Airbus will be discussed at the Geneva-based WTO on November 4 and the European complaint over US subsidies to Boeing will be discussed November 5, Mills said.
On October 6, the United States lodged a complaint against European plane development subsidies to Airbus with the WTO, triggering a tit-for-tat European objection to indirect US subsidies for Boeing.
Washington also abandoned a 1992 transatlantic air subsidies accord, which had allowed European countries to give royalty-based loans for up to one-third of the costs of developing new aircraft.
If they fail to find negotiated settlements, each side could ask the WTO to appoint an independent panel of experts to examine and rule on their complaints -- a process that can take between six and nine months.

10/25/2004 - 18:17 GMT - AFP