Courtesy of planenews.com

GENEVA : The European Union and the United States spent eight hours in talks on their trade dispute over support for aircraft makers Airbus and Boeing, with US President George W. Bush's re-election easing the search for a settlement, sources said.

The talks, involving legal specialists, were expected to last for two days at an undisclosed location in this western Swiss city, a US commerce department official said.
In Brussels, the spokeswoman for EU competition commissioner Pascal Lamy said: "We provided clarifications for all questions asked, in particular on reimbursable advances (to Airbus), the conditions under which they are granted and the programs concerned."
"Tomorrow we want to examine American support for Boeing, in particular illegal aid, with respect to a 1992 bilateral accord, granted to the 7E7 program," Arancha Gonzalez added.
The United States lodged a complaint against EU plane development subsidies to Airbus with the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation on October 6, at the height of campaigning in the US presidential race.
The 25-nation European Union immediately countered with action against indirect US government subsidies for Boeing.
Under world trade rules, if Brussels and Washington are unable to settle their dispute over the world's largest civil aircraft makers by themselves by December 6, one of them can ask the WTO to appoint an independent panel to examine and rule on their complaints.
Experts on Thursday said that further step could bring trouble for both sides and underlined the electoral value of the US complaint about support for Airbus, since the issue had been simmering outside the WTO for several months.

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