US, EU head for tariffs over aircraft aid, says trade chief

Bloomberg

European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom signalled that she expects the US and EU to hit each other with tariffs as retaliation over illegal government aid to Airbus SE and Boeing Co.
Malmstrom said the US is entitled to strike first by the end of summer and the EU would follow suit five to six months later after the World Trade Organization faulted both sides in 14-year-old disputes over aircraft subsidies. She also repeated a preference to seek a negotiated settlement with Washington.
“We are both sinners, so with that we are entitled to take action against each other,” Malmstrom said in Brussels. “This would be very unfortunate, of course, because even if we both have sinned we should put our different sanctions in the freezer and say ‘let’s talk.”’
The simmering Boeing-Airbus dispute threatens to worsen transatlantic commercial ties as the EU presses US President Donald Trump’s administration to refrain from imposing tariffs on European automotive goods based on national-security grounds, and to enter negotiations on across-the-board cuts in industrial duties.
The US has threatened to seek $11 billion in damages through duties on European goods ranging from helicopters to cheeses to counter state aid to Airbus. In response, the EU has published a preliminary list of US goods — from ketchup to video-game consoles — being targeted in a $12 billion plan for retaliatory levies over subsidies to Boeing.
“These actions would be WTO-compatible,” Malmstrom said. “They are allowed to do so and so are we. But still, it would be in the interest of everybody” to enter into negotiations
and avoid retaliation because “there’s always the ordinary people, ordinary consumers, small companies who are affected.”

Airbus to ask airlines to check wings of A380s for cracks
Bloomberg

Airbus SE will ask airlines operating 25 of its older A380 planes to inspect their wings for possible cracks, a problem that’s arisen in the past on the double-decker aircraft.
Some fissures were found on planes in service, a condition that could reduce the wings’ structural integrity if not corrected, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said. The regulator is proposing an airworthiness directive related to the matter.
A wing-crack debacle seven years ago cost Airbus millions of euros in repair and service costs, only one of the issues that plagued the world’s biggest passenger plane.
Airbus said it would stop making the iconic double-decker.
The planemaker’s shares fell 0.3 percent to 123.52 euros in Paris trading. The stock has advanced 47 percent so far this year.
Airlines must use ultrasonic testing methods for the inspections and if any cracks are detected alert Airbus for repair instructions before the plane’s next planned flight, according to the EASA’s directive.