Zoellick blasts Mandelson ‘spin’ on aircraft subsidy dispute

In an unusually personal attack, Robert Zoellick, the chief US trade negotiator, on 5 April 2005 lashed out at the European Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson, his European Union counterpart, accusing him of using 'spin' in a contentious dispute over aircraft subsidies and comparing him unfavourably with his predecessor, Pascal Lamy. Article suggests that this marked a serious deterioration in US-EU trade relations, increasing the likelihood that the battle over state aid to Airbus and Boeing would require arbitration by the World Trade Organisation.