U.S. Aircraft Subsidies Accord Under Fire

The European Union will tell the U.S. next week that it is unhappy with U.S. enforcement of an aircraft-subsidies accord. EU and U.S. trade representatives will assemble Friday for a twice-yearly meeting that will include discussion on the enforcement of a 1992 bilateral treaty that governs how much financial help governments may give to commercial aircraft makers, an EU official said. Signals also are pointing to an EU decision to block Boeing Co.’s purchase of smaller rival McDonnell Douglas Corp. A European advisory committee of antitrust experts has agreed to advise the EU-U.S. commission against clearing the merger unless Boeing offers to take more measures to protect competition, an EU official said. The commission will make a final ruling on the purchase on July 23. In recent weeks, European aerospace executives have assailed the agreement on government subsidies. Executives at Daimler-Benz Aerospace, British Aerospace and Airbus Industrie have variously called for the agreement to be thrown out or rewritten.