US Warns EU That Secret Airbus Loan Threatens Transatlantic Trade Truce

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer publicly warned the European Union on October 27, 2026, that a €3.4 billion loan extended by the European Investment Bank to Airbus in June 2026 threatens the transatlantic trade truce on aircraft financing, originally struck in 2021 and extended in July 2026. Greer said that despite repeated requests, his office has received no details about the terms of the record-breaking EIB loan, creating, in his words, 'substantial uncertainty into transatlantic trade in the aerospace sector.' The 2021 truce resolved a 17-year World Trade Organization dispute over alleged subsidies to both Boeing and Airbus, and it forestalled mutual tariffs on roughly $11.5 billion worth of trade. Boeing formally requested transparency about the EIB loan, raising concerns that its terms could constitute an illegal subsidy under past WTO rulings. The EIB and Airbus both denied any irregularity, calling the financing a standard commercial loan at market rates with no special support attached. The dispute complicates an already delicate broader US-EU trade relationship: the two sides agreed in July 2026 to a package that replaced most US tariffs on European goods with a flat 15 percent rate in exchange for the EU dropping tariffs on US industrial exports. Analysts warned that if the aircraft-financing quarrel is not resolved, it could reignite tariff threats across the wider bilateral trade corridor.