EU appeals WTO ruling in Airbus case

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:50 July 22 2010]
• Comments

The European Union said Wednesday it will appeal a WTO ruling that Airbus received illegal state aid from EU member states.

"The EU has today lodged its appeal with the WTO Appellate Body on the panel report concerning Airbus support (DS316) issued on 30 June 2010," the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said in a statement.

"While the report sides with the EU in rejecting a significant number of US claims, there are other aspects of the report which need to be corrected or clarified," the statement said.

The EU said it questioned a number of findings by the WTO panel, which said "certain instances of repayable launch investment (RLI) for the A380 are export subsidies" and there are "a causal link between Airbus support and any adverse effects to Boeing has been established".

"This dispute is too important to allow the legal misinterpretations of the panel to go unchallenged. What is more, not appealing would allow for an unhelpful precedent for the WTO membership as a whole," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said.