EU claims illegal U.S. subsidies to Boeing cost Airbus $27 billion

The United States’ payment of what the European Union has called illegal subsidies to Boeing Co. has cost rival European plane maker Airbus $27 billion in lost revenue over the last three years, the EU said Wednesday as hearings over the transatlantic dispute began.

The EU added that Washington would have only itself to blame if the World Trade Organization were to rule next year that the U.S. had broken commerce rules in its financing of Boeing, which is embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with Airbus.

The U.S. said government contracts did not give Chicago-based Boeing an unfair advantage, and noted that Airbus had actually gained 20 percentage points of market share at Boeing’s expense since 2000.

The global market for planes is worth an estimated $3 trillion over the next two decades.

“The lavish subsidies. . . allowed Boeing to engage in aggressive pricing of its aircraft which has caused lost sales, lost market share and price suppression to Airbus on a number of select markets,” the EU said as the hearings started.

The clash, expected to be the most complex and costly in the WTO’s 12-year history, rests on the ability of the U.S. and the EU to show that the alleged subsidies have harmed their industries. Both have presented evidence of lost plane sales or lowered prices.