"The EU will request the WTO-appointed arbitrator to determine the EU's retaliation rights," the official said. "The commission is starting preparations so that the EU can promptly take action based on the arbitrator's decision."

Washington and Brussels have locked themselves in a grueling dispute settlement process at the WTO since 2004, featuring tit-for-tat appeals and counter-appeals against each other.

As the United States accuses the EU of subsidizing Airbus and the EU challenges the United States for illegally aiding Boeing Co, both sides claimed partial victory along the way.

In March 2012, the WTO ruled that at least 5 billion dollars' worth of U.S. subsidies to Boeing were illegal, notifying the United States to scrap them.

In June 2017, the WTO agreed with the EU in a ruling saying that the United States had not fully complied with the 2012 request asking it to remove the subsidies, citing the case of Washington state's tax breaks.

The USTR said a WTO appellate report in May 2018 found that "EU subsidies to high-value, twin-aisle aircraft have caused serious prejudice to U.S. interests," and that the EU's launching aid to Airbus' A350 XWB and A380 caused "significant" lost sales and lost market to Boeing.

On May 15, 2018, The European Commission issued a press release, which quoted European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom as saying that the appellate report "has definitively rejected the U.S. challenge on the bulk of EU support to Airbus," adding that the EU "will now take swift action to ensure it is fully in line with the WTO's final decision in this case."

The EU's "remaining compliance obligations," according to Malmstrom, involve repayable loans provided to the newer A380 and A350 XWB models. 

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