Airbus offers ‘final’ concession to ease jet subsidy dispute

PARIS (Reuters) – European planemaker Airbus on Friday made what it described as a final step aimed at halting a transatlantic trade war over billions of dollars of aircraft subsidies.

Airbus said it had agreed to pay higher interest rates on government loans it received from France and Spain to help develop its A350 jet, which entered service in 2015.

It did not disclose the cost of the extra payments, which fall due whenever the plane is delivered abroad.

The government loans are among European measures that the World Trade Organization has deemed illegal subsidies as part of a pair of cases also implicating U.S. support for Boeing.

The European Union’s failure to withdraw Airbus subsidies completely led to WTO approval for U.S. sanctions starting from late last year on up to $7.5 billion of goods ranging from wine to whisky.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Sarah White)