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http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/10/17/afx2281162.html WTO names South American officials to lead Boeing-Airbus dispute panels 10.17.2005, 01:57 PM GENEVA (AFX) - The World Trade Organisation has picked the trade experts who will referee the EU-US battle over billions of euros in public aid for aircraft giants Boeing Co and Airbus. Carlos Perez del Castillo of Uruguay will steer a three-member panel hearing Washington's complaint against Brussels over aid to Airbus, officials said. Perez del Castillo, who previously served as his country's trade ambassador, lost out earlier this year in the WTO leadership race. Colombia's former defence and trade minister Marta Lucia Ramirez de Rincon will hear the EU complaint against Boeing. The WTO watches over the rules of global commerce set by the 148 trading nations that make up its membership and tries to settle tussles among them. In July, the organisation agreed to establish panels to rule on the US case over aid to Airbus and the separate European Union complaint over support for Boeing. But the panels were not appointed immediately because neither Washington nor Brussels could agree on their membership. The US has challenged aid for Airbus from the governments of four European countries -- Britain, France, Germany and Spain. The EU's own complaint hinges on US state and local subsidies or indirect assistance for Boeing. Washington and Brussels took their cases to the WTO after failing in negotiations to find common ground over several billion euros of public aid and despite earlier warnings from both sides that a full-blown legal clash at the WTO could be 'disastrous'. They have, however, tried to keep open the option of settling the dispute directly. The aircraft spat is regarded as one of the biggest and the most complicated that the Geneva-based trade body has ever been asked to handle and could last for years. bar-jwf/rm/tc Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM
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