After 16 years of litigation at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Airbus has agreed with the governments of France and Spain to make amendments to the A350 Repayable Launch Investment (RLI) contracts, making the final stop of a long-standing dispute and removes any justification for US tariffs, a press release stated  

The release said Airbus made the decision to amend the French and Spanish contracts according to parameters that the WTO considers “appropriate interest rate and risk assessment benchmarks.” The WTO has earlier ruled RLI as a valid instrument for governments to partner with industry by sharing investment risks. 

“We have fully complied with all the WTO requirements. These additional amendments to the A350 RLIs demonstrate that Airbus has left no stone unturned to find a way towards a solution,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. 

In October of 2019, the United States won a $7.5 billion arbitration award in its dispute with the European Union over illegal subsidies to Airbus, a USTR filing stated. This gave the former right to impose WTO-approved tariffs on certain imports from EU member states, with the bulk of the tariffs applied to imports from France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom.