Brussels, 22/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - As European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht had intimated last week (EUROPE 10180), the European Commission lodged its appeal with the WTO Appellate Body on Wednesday 21 July against the report, published on 30 June (EUROPE 10172), by the special Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) responsible for ruling in relation to the US complaint against financial support to Airbus (DS316). “While the report sides with the EU in rejecting a significant number of US claims, there are other aspects of the report which need to be corrected or clarified”, the Commission points out in a press release, explaining that the EU appeal covers a number of findings by the panel including that: - certain instances of repayable launch investment (RLI) for the A380 are export subsidies; - a causal link between Airbus support and any adverse effects to Boeing has been established; - certain infrastructure measures taken by EU member states for which Airbus pays market-based rent constitute subsidies. Karel De Gucht has commented: “The WTO dispute settlement system rightly allows for appeal to correct any legal errors of the panels. This dispute is too important to allow the legal misinterpretations of the panel to go unchallenged. What is more, not appealing would allow for an unhelpful precedent for the WTO membership as a whole”.
Next steps. The United States had called for a meeting of the DSB to be held on 21 July with a view to formal adoption of the panel report. By submitting its notice of appeal prior to the actual meeting, the EU has indicated that it is appealing the panel report, thereby preventing its formal adoption. WTO appeal procedure normally takes 90 days. Given the complex nature of complaints crossing at the WTO (Airbus/Boeing - the EU is still waiting for the WTO verdict on the complaint against aid to Boeing, DS353), it is possible that the procedure will take longer. The interim report by the WTO panel on the EU's complaint is due to be published mid-September 2010. (E.H./transl.jl)