Airbus and Boeing have finally ended their World Trade Organization aircraft-subsidy feud of nearly two decades, and it couldn't have come a moment too soon. Spending more time sparring with each other over which government gave an unfair boost to its commercial aircraft industry would have continued to obscure the growing challenge that China's own aircraft subsidies pose. The U.S. and EU have agreed not to provide undue R&D funding to Boeing or Airbus. But another important aspect of the five-year truce is their commitment to form a working group to analyze so-called nonmarket practices of third parties that may harm their large civil aircraft sectors. This signals that the West is finally taking steps to stop the unfair business practices by China over the last 20 years to gain dominance in an array of other manufacturing and high-tech sectors (see page 59).
展开▼
