U.S, EU agree truce in 17-year Airbus-Boeing conflict

The United States and the European Union have agreed a truce in their near 17-year conflict over aircraft subsidies, suspending for five years one set of Trump-era tariffs which had soured relations between them.

The two sides have been battling since 2004 in parallel cases at the World Trade Organization over subsidies for U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) and European rival Airbus (AIR.PA), which each argued exposed the other to unfair competition.

They agreed in March to a four-month suspension of tariffs on $11.5 billion of goods from EU cheese and wine to U.S. tobacco and spirits, which the WTO had sanctioned. Businesses have so far paid more than $3.3 billion in duties.

On Tuesday they said they would suspend the tariffs for five years, in line with a Reuters report on Monday read more , while still working on the overarching agreement on subsidies they had envisaged in March.

"Grounding the Airbus-Boeing dispute delivers a major confidence boost for EU-U.S. relations," EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference after an EU-U.S. summit with U.S. President Joe Biden.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the two sides had agreed to clear statements on what support could be given to large civil aircraft producers. They would also work to counter investments in aircraft by "non-market actors", she said, referring specifically to China.

Others were launching their own industries and the United States and the EU had been too busy fighting each other to pay attention, she said.

"The deal...includes a commitment for concrete joint collaboration to confront the threat from China's ambitions to build an aircraft sector on non-market practices," she said.