16/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - On aid to Airbus and Boeing, De Gucht says EU and USA are both guilty. The EU and the United States “are both guilty in the affair” of cross complaints filed with the WTO against subsidies paid out to their respective aircraft manufacturers, said Karel De Gucht, speaking during a press briefing on the sidelines of the WTO ministerial conference in Geneva on Thursday 15 December. The EU and US administrations “have both taken government action” to support their aircraft industries, the trade commissioner said, going on to add: “We think that what we have put forward is fully compliant” with the WTO's verdict to put an end to subsidies paid to Airbus, which were denounced by Washington in the context of its 2004 complaint (DS316). Although the EU now awaits the WTO's response to its report on compliance, it also awaits a series of compliance measures from the United States when the WTO gives its position, in 2012, on subsidies received by the US aircraft maker, Boeing, denounced by the Commission in 2005 (DS353). (EH/transl.jl)