Trade panel: Boeing got unfair US tax breaks, hurting Airbus
GENEVA — Delivering final word in a nearly 14-year standoff, a World Trade Organization body has ruled Boeing received illegal U.S. subsidies via tax breaks from Washington state that damaged sales by European archrival Airbus.
The decision by the WTO’s appellate body considered whether planemaker and defence company Boeing had complied with a 2012 ruling that found it received at least $5 billion in subsidies that were prohibited under international trade rules.
Except for the relatively small Washington state tax breaks — which the U.S. says come to around just $100 million a year — Thursday’s ruling found no grounds upon which the European bloc could seek damages from an arbitrator.