WASHINGTON - The United States said Tuesday it remains prepared to negotiate in the transatlantic row over aid for aircraft giants Boeing and Airbus even after both sides said they were pursuing formal WTO complaints.
"We still stand ready to negotiate," a senior US trade official told reporters, on condition of anonymity.
"This has happened very frequently in the WTO (and) has often led to a satisfactory solution."
The US move came hours after Washington and Brussels said they were taking the case to the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, with both sides claiming improper subsidies to the aircraft manufacturers.
Both sides had tried to avoid a full-blown dispute at the WTO but failed to meet an April 11 target for an amicable solution.
The US official argued, however, that negotiations can take place only if EU officials agree to end the direct launch assistance to Airbus for the launch of new civilian aircraft.
"We continue to believe the best way to resolve this is a negotiated solution, but we cannot do that when the EU and its member states are moving forward on new subsidies," the official said.
"The basic allegation is obvious -- the EU and EU member states have been and continue to provide support to Airbus that in our view continue to violate the (WTO) rules."
The US official said overall US-EU relations should not be harmed by the move to the WTO process.
"We intend to deal with this particular dispute separately from all the other issues we work on," the official said. "That is why we feel it is appropriate to use this process, so (the case) doesn't get it mixed up with leverage and other issues."
The dispute over aid to Airbus and Boeing was inflamed recently when Airbus requested British government aid for its A350 long-haul plane designed to compete with Boeing's proposed 787 Dreamliner.
The United States believes financial aid given to Airbus to launch new aircraft is illegal under WTO rules, while the Europeans accuse Washington of subsidizing Boeing through military contracts.
The US official dismissed the notion that the US aid is improper.
"We think there is a difference between giving someone a risk-free loan that can turn out to be a grant and giving someone a contract ... that is a true commercial transaction," the official said.
Washington alleges that Airbus has received some 15 billion dollars in aid since a 1992 bilateral agreement between the two trade blocs.
EU officials contend that Boeing has received 22 billion dollars in "indirect" aid over the same period, including research and development contracts with NASA and the Pentagon.
Hours earlier, European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson lashed out at Boeing for pushing Washington to take a row with Airbus to the WTO as he launched a counterattack against US action.
Mandelson pinned the blame for the rapidly escalating trade war squarely on Boeing. "They have been in the driving seat throughout. They have Washington in a tight political grip," he said.
A senior US trade official dismissed Mandelson's allegation. "The administration makes its own decision on which cases to pursue, how to pursue them, when to pursue them," he said.
"So we would certainly not agree that the administration or the executive branch is being manipulated by anybody in this case or any other case."