Some sort of negotiated settlement would appear the best outcome for which either protagonist can hope in the interminable dispute between Airbus and Boeing over alleged subsidies for airliner developments that is supposedly being resolved by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Once again, the aerospace industry has been asked to believe that both sides are 100 percent in the right after yet another leaked ruling from the WTO on January 31–this one supposedly supporting Airbus’s claims that Boeing has enjoyed an unfair advantage from government subsidies. But since the initial details of the WTO’s findings only ever seem to find their way through osmosis to insiders with strongly vested interests, it is difficult to understand how the rest of us can form an independent judgment.
Supposedly, the ruling itself will be issued publicly in “a few weeks,” after it has been translated from English. If nothing else, this will make it easier for Russia’s Sukhoi, China’s Comac and Japan’s Mitsubishi to reflect on how they could take advantage of the way Airbus and Boeing have allowed themselves to be distracted by years of circular arguments. Others might, in turn, reflect on whether the sluggish WTO will ever turn its attention to the government support that these emerging rivals have surely enjoyed as they seek to break into aerospace’s top tier.
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