The United States recently won the largest arbitration award in World Trade Organization history in its dispute with the European Union over WTO-inconsistent subsidies to Airbus, a European multinational aerospace corporation.
On October 2 the WTO authorized the U.S. to impose $7.5 billion annually in countermeasure tariffs to balance the harm caused by the EU’s subsidies.
“For years, Europe has been providing massive subsidies to Airbus that have seriously injured the U.S. aerospace industry and our workers,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
Following the ruling, U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo told the Italian newspaper La Stampa, “This was definitely an unfair trading relationship.” The secretary said he was “very hopeful that we can get an outcome that works for everyone.”