A potential trade truce between the United States and the European Union is facing renewed pressure after President Donald Trump’s top trade official said a multibillion-dollar loan approved by the bloc’s investment bank for Airbus this summer could threaten the agreement.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer expressed concern that his office had received “no details about this loan” and called for the situation to be “resolved as soon as possible.”
“I had sincerely hoped that trade-distorting European subsidies to Airbus were a thing of the past,” Greer said in a statement. “This situation injects substantial uncertainty into transatlantic trade in the aerospace sector,” he added.
In June, the European Investment Bank said it would provide Airbus with a record 3 billion euros, or about $3.4 billion, in financing to support research and development.
EIB Vice President Ambroise Fayolle said the financing was unprecedented in the bank’s history and was intended to give Airbus the capacity and flexibility to invest in long-term research, development and innovation across commercial aviation and the security and defence sectors.
The United States and the European Union had been at odds over alleged unfair trade practices since 2004, with each side accusing the other of providing support to private companies such as Boeing and Airbus in violation of international trade agreements.
The 17-year dispute led both sides to impose tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s products. The two sides later agreed in 2021 to a five-year trade deal under former President Joe Biden.
Neither side has since reintroduced the tariffs.
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