Airbus seized on a highly-anticipated World Trade Organisation report yesterday, claiming it had won a significant victory in the long-running US case alleging it had received billions of dollars of illegal subsidies.
Although the European manufacturer conceded the 1,000-page WTO ruling had found “elements of subsidy” in past government loans, it claimed the report had found its practices had not harmed rival Boeing or cost US jobs.
Airbus, a division of EADS, also said the report, which is supposed to be confidential, confirmed that the WTO had rejected 70 per cent of the US claims and that no payments had caused “material injury to any US interest”.