The EU and US have agreed to prolong a truce in their 17-year Airbus-Boeing row for five years, marking a diplomatic victory during the visit of US President Joe Biden to Brussels, European sources said Tuesday.
“We have found a good agreement that gives us the time to find a long-term solution,” a European source close to the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity. Biden will meet with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel in Brussels at noon and solving a list of existing trade conflicts will be on the top of the agenda. Asked whether there would be a breakthrough in the meetings with Washington, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “very positive that we will find an agreement on the Airbus-Boeing issue today.” “We should not underestimate this is the longest trade dispute in the history of WTO, so it’s in our common interest to solve it,” she told reporters. “I’m very positive and convinced that together we will deliver today.” The EU and the US have been at loggerheads for almost two decades in the conflict over their aircraft manufacturers.
A source close to the matter said that the truce would last for five years, which would give enough time to find a global solution at the WTO involving the aviation industry worldwide. They accuse each other of illegally subsidising Airbus and Boeing, their aviation champions. In early March, both sides declared a kind of ceasefire for four months after Biden took office. They refrained from imposing further punitive tariffs on each other until July 11 to negotiate a solution to the dispute.