FILE PHOTO: Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury attends a news conference at the 53rd International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France June 20, 2019. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
MONTREAL (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said on Thursday he will continue to advocate for a settlement on trade between the United States and Europe and called the imposition of tariffs a “lose-lose game” on both sides of the Atlantic.
The United States was granted approval this month to impose tariffs on European Union goods with an annual trade value of around $7.5 billion, over illegal government support for the European planemaker.
“We think a trade war on aviation will be a lose-lose game,” Faury told reporters in Montreal. “We continue to advocate for a settlement on this topic and we think it’s still possible.”
The World Trade Organization has found that both Airbus and its U.S. rival Boeing (BA.N) received billions of dollars of subsidies in a pair of cases marking the world’s largest ever corporate trade dispute. Both sides have threatened tariffs after the Geneva body found neither adhered fully to its findings.
Airbus, which operates a narrowbody assembly line in Alabama, said about 40% of the sourcing for the facility’s planes come from the United States.
Reporting by Allison Lampert, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Muralikumar Anantharaman
