World Trade Organization Ruling

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, I would also like to say a word about the World Trade Organization's announcement that was just made yesterday, one in which the World Trade Organization said that the Boeing 777X Program did not receive prohibited subsidies. This is a huge win for 80,000 Boeing employees in the State of Washington as well as for the 1,700 suppliers and individual businesses across our State who support our strong aerospace economy.

It is also a loss to the European Union in its efforts to retaliate against the United States for our challenge to illegal launch aid to Airbus that began more than 10 years ago. This shows it was right to raise these concerns by the United States and that the retaliation by Airbus was wrong.

Last year, the WTO ruled that the EU had not taken steps to comply with its previous ruling regarding $17 billion in illegal launch aid to Airbus, and that it had given another $5 billion in illegal launch aid to the A350 Program even after these kinds of subsidies had been declared illegal.

We need an aerospace market that is truly competitive, one that is not distorted by illegal subsidies. So these cases matter because the outcome impacts jobs here in the United States, and aerospace is one of the biggest manufacturers in the United States.

We know in our State that there are lots of challenges and there is lots of competition, but we want that competition to be on a level playing field. We want to make sure that, in the aerospace industry, people are playing by the rules. This is the third time the WTO has said that the massive illegal subsidies the EU has provided to Airbus are wrong, that they have failed to take the steps to comply, and that they need to change their behavior.

If the EU will not play by the rules, then we should take the necessary steps to force an end to these anti-competitive schemes. I say this because the WTO's ruling today--while I know many of my colleagues think this process played out all too long--did resolve the issue as it related to the EU gave Airbus.

Enforcement of these trade rules is important to U.S. competitiveness. I want to continue to strengthen our ability to enforce these kinds of rules and continue to make sure that the U.S. Government has all the resources and personnel it needs to make sure our trading partners meet their commitments, and our aerospace workforce in the United States is second to none. I want to continue to fight every battle to make sure they can be competitive.

I thank everyone at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for working so hard on this case for more than a decade. It is finally time to move on and to make sure that the EU is in line with these past WTO rulings and that we continue to fight for a fair and competitive aerospace market.

I yield the floor.

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