EU Will Stand Firm Against Washington Over Trade Disputes

The European Union will take decisive measures against the United States if it is unwilling to settle a long-standing dispute over aircraft with new business investigations, the European Trade Commissioner said on Monday.

The history of this dispute dates back to 2004 over subsidies and support for European Airbus and the US aircraft maker Boeing.

Washington has granted the right to charge $7.5B of European goods related to subsidies given to Airbus.

The European Trade Commissioner said that Washington has twice rejected the European Union’s proposals to settle the dispute. Some officials, according to Reuters, said the United States did not want to settle the dispute before this time.

“I want to reassure people that we are ready to act decisively and strongly on the European Union side if we don’t get the type of outcome that we expect from the United States in relationship to finalizing this 15-year-old dispute,” commissioner said.