US warns EU loan to Airbus threatens aircraft financing trade truce

US trade representative Jamieson Greer warned the EU on Monday that a record-breaking loan to Airbu from the European Investment Bank threatens a delicate transatlantic trade truce, including a deal on financing large civil aircraft (LCA) projects.

In a statement, Greer expressed frustration that despite “ongoing requests”, his office has received no details about the US$3.4 billion loan made in June from the EIB, the EU’s official lending arm.

US planemaker Boeing had asked the US government in July to press for transparency on the loan, which came amid speculation that Airbus would use the funds to develop a new aircraft model.

“This situation injects substantial uncertainty into transatlantic trade in the aerospace sector,” Greer said. “It is important this situation is resolved as soon as possible to ensure market-driven production in the aerospace sector and to avoid violation of the terms of our hard-won LCA deal.”

The US and EU fought a protracted 17-year battle over alleged aircraft subsidies at the World Trade Organization with both sides winning partial victories before agreeing to a five-year truce in 2021 that forestalled mutual tariffs on some US$11.5 billion worth of trade.

The truce was extended in July after the EU parliament approved a broader US trade deal that removed tariffs on US industrial goods in return for a 15% US tariff on most EU goods. US President Donald Trump had threatened higher tariffs unless EU member states met a July 4 deadline for ratifying the deal initially reached in July 2025.

A key question for USTR is whether the terms of the EIB loan would be considered a subsidy for Airbus, as the WTO has found in the past on such loans.

Airbus and Boeing did not immediately respond on Monday to requests for comment on Greer’s statement.

The EIB said in July that it finances thousands of companies every year and denied offering Airbus any unusual support. “This is a normal loan, carrying interest, part of the EIB’s overall financing activity,” a spokesperson for the lender said.

Airbus chief financial officer Thomas Toepfer also told reporters in London in July that the loan had been taken out “completely at market level”.