Boeing-Airbus Trade Dispute Is a Pointless Relic
The question of who gave what aid many years ago feels outdated when the pandemic has forced governments on both sides to protect their aerospace industries.
Boeing has bigger problems.
Photographer: Mike Kane/Bloomberg
The long-running trade dispute between Boeing Co. and Airbus SE has been a source of political grandstanding for years, but with the U.S.’s aggression reaching new levels of hypocrisy, the time may finally be right for a settlement.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office announced late Wednesday that it was leaving tariffs on $7.5 billion of imports because the European Union had not yet taken enough action to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on illegal subsidies for Airbus. The U.S. is taking certain products from Greece and the U.K. off the list of items subject to the duties and adding an equal amount of goods from France and Germany, apparently to focus the pressure for a deal on those two countries. But the U.S. refrained from making good on a threat to impose tariffs on $3.1 billion of additional goods like olives and gin and increase existing duties on aircraft, wine and cheese. The U.S. “is committed to obtaining a long-term resolution to this dispute,” Robert Lighthizer, the trade representative, said in a statement, which called the tariff adjustments “modest.” Washington’s decision to hold off on increasing tariffs may help avoid the kind of escalation of tensions that would derail further talks. A European Commission post on Twitter called for both sides to “build on this decision and intensify their efforts to find a negotiated solution.”