The EU and US agreed to end a 17-year dispute over aircraft subsidies, lifting the threat of billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on their economies in a boost to transatlantic relations.
Two days of intensive negotiations in Brussels led to a draft deal on how to handle subsidies for Airbus and Boeing, with the breakthrough finalised on Tuesday at US president Joe Biden’s first EU-US summit meeting in Brussels.
“With this agreement, we are grounding the Airbus-Boeing dispute,” said EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. “We now have time and space to find a lasting solution . . . while saving billions of euros in duties for importers on both sides of the Atlantic.”