The World Trade Organisation has ruled that subsidies being received by Boeing from Washington are unfair. The US planemaker has apparently received £3.3 billion the WTO thinks it should not have been awarded in the form of subsidies including research and development cash from NASA.

The latest announcement follows a ruling last year by the WTO which stated that rivals Airbus had been receiving illegal aid from governments in Europe. Both manufacturers have been arguing about how much state aid they are being given for more than half a decade now and both are saying that the latest WTO ruling supports their case.

Airbus head of public affairs, Rainer Ohler, said Boeing needed to stop denying that it was receiving large amounts in illegal subsidies. Boeing’s general council, Michael Luttig, countered Ohler by saying that the US aircraft manufacturer had received far less in aid than its European rival. He added that it was now time for governments in Europe to realise that it is a myth that they have to pour money into Airbus to counter the assistance given to Boeing by the US government.

Europe claims that Boeing received close to $20 billion in illegal subsidies on 10 occasions in the period between 1989 and 2006. The WTO does not support all of those claims, but has admitted that tax breaks and the NASA contracts had impacted on the interests of Airbus in the form of lost sales and price suppression.

The organisation has made the recommendation that the subsidies are withdrawn.