THE manufacture of airliners may be the world"™s most globalised industry. Only two firms make big civil jets: Boeing of America and Airbus of Europe. Most of their revenue"”55% for Boeing and 70% for Airbu"”are earned outside their home territory. Both source parts from dozens of countries. But a ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on subsidies in the industry could deal another blow to the beleaguered international trading system.
On May 15th the WTO"™s final appeals body upheld parts of a previous ruling, finding that the European Union wrongly provided subsidies to Airbus to develop new aircraft. That, it concluded, had hit sales of Boeing"™s jets…
