The WTO’s highest court ruled on Tuesday 15 May that the European Union has not fully brought its subsidies for plane manufacturer Airbus in line with global trade rules, agreeing overall with a previous panel while rejecting some the latter’s individual findings. The Appellate Body ruling is the latest development in a case ( DS316 ) that launched in October 2004 and has become one of the most high-profile cases at the Geneva-based organisation. The original Airbus case was filed by the United States, which has long argued that state aid to the European multinational plane manufacturer contravenes WTO rules. Washington and Brussels have spent over a decade embroiled in legal cases at the WTO over subsidies to aircraft manufacturing companies, with the EU pushing its own dispute against US government support to Boeing. The Appellate Body report on the US’ compliance in that case ( DS353 ) is still pending. Going forward, the US now has the option to ask an arbitrator to determine what level of concessions that Washington is able to suspend against the European Union. An arbitrator had already begun examining this option before the two sides launched “compliance” proceedings, with arbitration then being put on...