By Tim Hepher and David Shepardson <\/p>\n
FARNBOROUGH, England, July 21 (Reuters) – Boeing has asked the U.S. government to press the European Union for transparency over a \u20ac3 billion ($3.43 billion) loan package to Airbus, resurfacing potential trade tensions after the two sides extended a tariff truce \u200cover jet subsidies. <\/p>\n
The request for the U.S. government to intervene comes as Airbus has been talking about the development of a new plane \u200cas early as 2030, potentially kickstarting a new wave of competition in the global jet market. <\/p>\n
Both sides won partial victories in a 17-year battle at the World Trade Organization over mutual claims \u200bof aircraft subsidies that led to a wave of Transatlantic tariffs hitting other industries, before agreeing a five-year truce in 2021. <\/p>\n
The truce, which was set to expire on July 6, has been extended indefinitely as both sides draw back from a renewed trade war in aerospace. <\/p>\n
In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, seen by Reuters, Boeing said it had been surprised by a June 29 announcement from the European Investment Bank, the EU lending arm, committing to its largest-ever corporate \u200cloan for Airbus. <\/p>\n
It asked the USTR to request a “full \u2060accounting of the terms of this loan” from the EU and to explain why it was compatible with the 2021 truce agreement, which called for an “open and transparent process”. <\/p>\n
Boeing noted that the announcement, which included an initial tranche of \u20ac1 billion, \u2060came just four days after the EU adopted the decision to extend the standstill agreement. <\/p>\n
“At a minimum, the timing of this loan is surprising,” Boeing said in its letter. <\/p>\n
The EIB said it finances thousands of companies every year and denied offering Airbus any unusual support. <\/p>\n
“This is a normal loan, carrying interest, part of the EIB’s overall financing \u200bactivity,” \u200ba spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
Airbus and Boeing declined comment. <\/p>\n
The USTR and European Commission did not immediately respond \u200bto requests for comment. <\/p>\n
AIRPLANE DEVELOPMENTS <\/p>\n
In its loan announcement, the EIB \u200csaid the package of loans would support Airbus’ long-term investments through 2030. <\/p>\n
Boeing noted that this is the same year in which Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury has said Airbus plans to begin the development of an A320neo successor. <\/p>\n
In an interview with Aviation Week ahead of the Farnborough Airshow, Faury spoke of a new plane in 2030 and disclosed the internal code word for the project, “eAction”. <\/p>\n
“The timing of this significant loan also coincides with Airbus leadership remarks publicly committing to a launch date of a new airplane, which further raises questions about both the size and the intent of this historic economic assistance package,” Boeing’s letter \u200cto the USTR said. <\/p>\n
Boeing has said market conditions are not yet right for a new \u200bgeneration of planes, although analysts say both companies are expected to start the next developments \u200bby mid-decade. <\/p>\n
Boeing’s letter underscores wariness over funding on both sides, though tensions \u200bhave eased considerably since the WTO subsidy battle. <\/p>\n
The Trump administration last year agreed to exempt airplanes and parts from tariffs \u200cafter briefly imposing duties on aviation last year. <\/p>\n
Washington has not \u200bofficially said it is extending the separate \u200btruce on tariffs tied to the Airbus-Boeing dispute, but four people familiar with the matter said both sides had effectively buried the marathon WTO dispute for the time being. <\/p>\n
While the Trump administration has repeatedly used tariffs, it is seen as reluctant to make use of WTO tools \u200bthat would implicitly recognize multilateral rules the president opposes. <\/p>\n
Trump \u200ccalled this month for talks with trading partners to address the impact of foreign jet imports. <\/p>\n
Boeing’s concerns about the EU loan to \u200bAirbus could also be raised in those talks, a U.S. official told Reuters. European sources say similar loans were cleared in the \u200bWTO dispute. <\/p>\n
($1 = 0.8754 euros) <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Tim Hepher, David Shepardson; Editing by Sharon Singleton) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Tim Hepher and David Shepardson FARNBOROUGH, England, July 21 (Reuters) – Boeing has asked the U.S. government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2300,10055,51175,16470,39,40,14567],"class_list":["post-98997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-airbus","tag-boeing","tag-corporate-loan","tag-eib","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-loan-package"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}