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Planemaker Boeing received at least $5.3 billion of banned U.S. subsidies, the World Trade Organization said on Thursday in a dispute that shows no signs of an end to bitter transatlantic wrangling.
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The subsidies included support in the form of research and development payments to Boeing from the NASA space agency.
The ruling by a panel of trade judges is the latest round in a six-year battle between the industry's two giants that has spiraled into the world's largest and costliest trade dispute.
The WTO verdict backs some but not all of a tit-for-tat legal case over Boeing aid brought by the European Union.
A separate WTO trade panel condemned European support for Boeing rival Airbus in a parallel case last year.
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Both sides immediately claimed the upper hand in the row, which now extends to 2,000 pages of trade court rulings.
"This WTO panel report clearly shows that Boeing has received huge subsidies in the past and continues to receive significant subsidies today," European Union trade chief Karel De Gucht said.
Airbus, part of European aerospace group EADS, said it had lost $45 billion in aircraft sales because of the subsidies.
In Washington, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said the ruling vindicated a longtime U.S. position that "the subsidies the Europeans give to Airbus dwarf anything that the U.S. government does for Boeing."
Kirk said Washington disagreed with the panel's findings on Boeing support and was studying whether to appeal. A European source said the European Union may also appeal some findings.
As the latest telephone book-sized report was wheeled out of WTO offices in Geneva, the companies at the heart of the dispute opened fire with another salvo of claims through the media.
"It's time for Boeing to stop denying or minimizing the massive illegal subsidies it gets," said Rainer Ohler, head of public affairs and communications at Toulouse-based Airbus.
Boeing acknowledged receiving $2.7 billion of aid on top of a dispute that has already been aired, but accused its rival of diverting attention from more pernicious types of European aid.
"This WTO ruling shatters the convenient myth that European governments must illegally subsidize Airbus to counter U.S. government assistance to Boeing," said Michael Luttig, executive vice-president and general counsel at Boeing.
