GENEVA (Reuters) - World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitrators will evaluate a U.S. request to impose billions of dollars worth of sanctions on European products after a final WTO ruling that found the European Union had made illegal subsidies to Airbus (PA:AIR).
The United States made the request last Friday for the three judges to set the level of retaliatory sanctions after the WTO appeals body ruled on May 15 that the EU had failed to remove subsidized government development loans for the world's largest airliner, the A380, and Europe's newest long-haul jet, the A350, causing losses for Boeing (N:BA) and U.S. aerospace workers.
In its initial request in December 2011, the United States said that based on data at the time, it estimated the annual value of lost sales at between $7 billion and $10 billion. No current U.S. estimate was cited in the brief announcement in the WTO document posted on Thursday.
