WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has authorised the European Union to impose tariffs on US goods worth US$4 billion (S$5.5 billion) to retaliate against subsidies for US planemaker Boeing Co, people familiar with the matter said.
The delayed award provides a fresh source of potential trade friction weeks before the US presidential election, after Washington last year began imposing tariffs on US$7.5 billion worth of EU goods over state support for Boeing rival Airbus.
The two sides have been locked in a 16-year-old dispute at the Geneva-based WTO over aid to their aircraft industries in a pair of cases that together represent the world's largest-ever corporate trade dispute.
They were informed of the decision by WTO arbitrators last Friday (Sept 25) and the award is expected to be published within weeks.
The US Trade Representative and the EU's Washington office did not immediately answer requests for comment.
Boeing declined comment on the confidential WTO report but accused Airbus of ignoring its recent decision to forego tax breaks in Washington state to try to resolve the dispute.
Airbus, which recently announced its own concessions on funding in France and Spain, was not immediately available.
Sources on both sides said EU tariffs on products such as Boeing jets, which must still be adopted formally by the WTO, were unlikely to be imposed before the Nov 3 presidential election as Brussels seeks to avoid inflaming a bitter campaign.
Both sides are expected to claim victory, however, with US sources pointing to the higher core tariffs in favour of Boeing.
European sources said the latest award does not include some US$4.2 billion of tariffs against the US left over from an earlier case, giving the EU US$8.2 billion in total firepower.
The US says that previous award granting the EU tariffs over special tax treatment for US exporters, which it never implemented, is no longer valid because a law creating the disputed system was repealed in 2006.
The WTO has refused to be drawn into the controversy over unused tariffs, saying it has nothing to add to previous rulings on the former system of US Foreign Sales Corporations.
