Statement by Airbus on the US Government Request for Formal Consultation at the WTO
Toulouse, 07 October 2004
Airbus has fully supported all recent actions by the European Commission to engage with the US government in serious discussions on comprehensive new disciplines on government support.
The United States decision to terminate the 1992 Agreement and request formal consultations at the WTO is a strong demonstration of our competitor’s unwillingness to enter negotiations to end the massive US federal and state supports for the 7E7 and other programmes.
The path chosen by the US government today underscores our belief that the 7E7 programme is only viable because of the WTO-inconsistent subsidies granted to it — subsidies which were already prohibited by the 1992 Agreement. The WTO will now be asked to rule on the compatibility of the various governments’ subsidies to this and other programmes.
The market will now draw its own conclusions on the viability of the 7E7, a programme which depends vitally on WTO - incompatible subsidies.
From its strong European base, Airbus will continue to design, build and deliver market - preferred products to the global airline industry. Our willingness and ability to do so will be unaffected by this trade action.
Airbus purchases more than $5 billion per year of goods and services from hundreds of US suppliers in more than 40 states, generating more than 100,000 US jobs. At the same time, our competitor sources more than 50% of the 7E7 programme outside the United States.
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Contacts
| Airbus S.A.S. | http://www.airbus.com mailto: media@airbus.com |
