Germany has been a quite player in the TRIPS agreement
world. According to the WTO website (https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_by_country_e.htm),
Germany has only had two cases in regards to this topic.
The first was settled in April of 2012. It was brought by the United States and the
original complaint traced back to 2004 when the US requested meetings with the Governments of Germany, France, the United
Kingdom, and Spain. The US was seeking
clarifications on the subsidies that these countries were giving out to
companies that were seeking to upgrade the Airbus line of aircrafts,
specifically the A380. The subsidies
were inconsistent with the SCM Agreement and GATT 1994.
A panel was
established to review this and their findings were that the subsidies and
preferential loans were in contrast to the agreement. The Appellate Body upheld this finding and
instituted new procedures for these types of transactions.
*Noteworthy: A
separate dispute brought by the European Union against the United States for
subsidies allegedly provided to Boeing also went in front of the Appellate Body.
The panel report in that dispute was given to WTO Members on March, 31
2011. Both the EU and the US appealed parts of the panel’s findings in
this case.
The second case
was in October of 2006. It was in
regards to the same action of the 2004 complaint. This case was ultimately terminated on
October 7, 2007 because the authority of the panel lapsed and as a result the
work continued.
I am not sure why the EU would have an issue with the US and Boeing at all. I thought Boeing was and is a US company and was in many ways restricted on the items they can sell to other nations.
ReplyDeleteI agree Anthony, I was under the impression that defense contracts basically tied the hands of Boeing on international dealings. I am surprised that they are involved in any of these trade disputes.
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ReplyDeleteThe delete above is due to a typo. Boeing planes, however, are built by France, UK, Italy, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Canada, and Australia.
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