Airbus took out a record loan of 3 billion euros in June: the US Trade Representative warns the EU and its “distortive subsidies”

The United States Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, ruled on Monday that a massive loan granted by the European Union to Airbus jeopardized the customs truce concluded in 2021 after a dispute around the aircraft manufacturer and its American competitor Boeing. “I sincerely hoped that distorting European subsidies to Airbus would be a thing of the past,” lamented Jamieson Greer. Public aid is qualified as distorting when it distorts competition by granting an unfair advantage to the recipient companies.

The official expressed concern that his office had not received "any details regarding this loan," calling for the situation to be resolved "as quickly as possible." A record loan "to invest in research" In June, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced a record loan of 3 billion euros to the aircraft manufacturer to finance its research and development department. “This new financing, unprecedented in the history of the EIB, aims to provide Airbus not only with the capacity but also with the flexibility necessary to invest in long-term research, development and innovation, in the commercial aviation as well as security and defense sectors,” detailed the vice-president of the institution, Ambroise Fayolle.

Since 2004, the United States and the EU have regularly accused each other of unfair practices, centered mainly on subsidies to private companies such as Boeing and Airbus. In 2021, under the presidency of Joe Biden, Washington and Brussels reached a five-year agreement which allowed the suspension of customs duties worth billions of dollars on both sides. These surcharges have not been reinstated since.

Jamieson Greer's comments also come four months after the green light given by the 27 EU member countries to the global trade agreement negotiated last year with the United States, after Donald Trump's general customs offensive.

Machine-translated from French