Trade Win for Boeing _ Rival Airbus Got Unfair Aid

TO GO WITH STORY BY BRADLEY S. KLAPPER - FILE - The combo from file pictures shows at top the first...

TO GO WITH STORY BY BRADLEY S. KLAPPER - FILE - The combo from file pictures shows at top the first production model of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplane being unveiled on July 8, 2007, at Boeing's assembly plant in Everett, Washington, and at bottom visitors having a look at the Airbus A380 air plane at the 4th Airport Days on Sept. 16., 2007 in Hamburg. Rival planemakers Airbus and Boeing will find out Friday Sept. 4, 2009 who has won the first round of possibly the biggest commercial dipute in modern history. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren/Patrick Lux, file)

(AP)

In a victory for Boeing Co., the World Trade Organization sided with the American aviation giant Friday in finding that European countries had provided billions in illegal subsidies to chief competitor Airbus.

The preliminary ruling by the Geneva-based WTO, although expected to be challenged by the European Union, could begin to shake up the $3.2 trillion global market in new jetliners, in which Airbus has overtaken Boeing. The next shoe to drop will be a decision that may well go the other way: The international trade body will rule next year in an Airbus challenge to what it sees as unfair U.S. government support for Boeing.

Friday's decision confirms a complaint by the United States, filed in 2004, that "all Airbus aircraft have received illegal subsidies and that these have caused material harm to Boeing," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., among those briefed by U.S. trade officials on the yet-to-be released decision.

Another Washington state lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, said, "We learned in a WTO ruling that Airbus has enjoyed an unfair competitive advantage over Team Boeing for decades."

However, European officials who were briefed had a somewhat different take on the ruling from American lawmakers and officials, suggesting that many of the complaints lodged by the U.S. had been dismissed. They also said the kind of easy-term loans provided by European governments to Airbus were in some instances seen as a permissible form of financing.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the ruling was not made public, said the report was clearly not in Airbus' favor and was a rebuke to decades of European government help.

Boeing is headquartered in Chicago, but has extensive plane-building operations in the Seattle area. Lawmakers from other states with links to Boeing, also confirmed the decision.

The WTO finding was the first step in a process that could take years to produce a final result.