Airbus's top executive in North America has called on Europe and the USA to negotiate a settlement to their World Trade Organisation dispute over subsidies for large commercial aircraft.
"We are going to have to negotiate anyway, so why not start now," says Airbus North America chairman Allan McArtor.
A WTO panel is expected to rule on the US case against Europe on launch aid and other subsidies for Airbus late this year or early in 2008, while a separate ruling is expected by mid-2008 on the European case against the USA on research and development funding and other support for Boeing.
"Europe says it would really rather negotiate. Boeing and the US Trade Representative say they would really rather negotiate," says McArtor. "The WTO will play out and we will end up negotiating something," so Airbus and Boeing should make the first move towards a settlement, he suggests.
"We should start by agreeing what is acceptable government support between us [Airbus and Boeing] first, so we can then provide meaningful guidance to our [European and US] trade representatives."
Government support is "part of the DNA" of the industry, he says, and to believe that competitive aircraft development "could take place without public-private partnerships is a fantasy. We need some recognition, some negotiation of what is a fair and balanced basis for competition."
Source: Flight International