The WTO has found that both Airbus and its U.S. rival Boeing received billions of dollars of subsidies in a pair of cases marking the world’s largest ever corporate trade dispute. Both sides have threatened tariffs after the Geneva body found neither adhered fully to its findings.Washington sought permission to impose tariffs up to 100 per cent on European goods worth $11.2 billion a year.
The people said the tribunal had approved U.S. tariffs on goods with an annual trade value of around $7.5 billion – lower than the U.S. request, which is typical in such cases, but still what one person close to the case called a significant amount.None of the governments or companies agreed to comment.
One person close to the case said Washington was likely to go ahead, opening a new front in global trade tensions, after informal overtures from both sides failed to end deadlock.The EU cannot retaliate immediately to any tariffs as it did following what it considered to the United States’ unlawful imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in 2018.