Deadline suspended as two sides wrangle over European request for information
The July deadline for completing initial investigations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute over aircraft subsidies between the USA and the European Union has been formally suspended after the case became mired in procedural posturing.
The two sides locked horns at the latest WTO dispute meeting on 14 March, when the USA refused Europe’s demand for more information on US support to aircraft manufacturer Boeing.
The EU and the USA agreed last year on how to make commercial and government records available to each other before arbitration began after the WTO said it would investigate separately state aid to both Boeing and its European rival Airbus. But, the EU, unhappy with information the USA had submitted, asked for the scope of the investigation to be clarified.
The USA says it has submitted more than 40,000 pages of information, most relating to NASA and Department of Defense programmes as part of an extended 90-day Annexe V information gathering process, which has now ended.
“The fact that the EC waited until after the end of the Annexe V information-gathering process to attempt to fix errors in its panel request does not entitle it to escape the express limitations in Annexe V,” says the USA.
A source close to the trade dispute says: “The current suspension is simply a legal-technical correction. Both sides are pretending that some of the measures challenged by the other side in the panel request were not covered by the consultation requests, which are usually less detailed.”
AIMEE TURNER / LONDON
Source: Flight International
