EU unhappy with WTO ruling on Boeing

BRUSSELS -- The European Union is complaining that a 10-month gap between separate World Trade Organization rulings over government subsidies to airplane manufacturers Boeing and Airbus could damage chances of a settlement.

Boeing is based in Chicago.

EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann on Monday said the EU worries the WTO will only rule on its complaint that the Pentagon and NASA are indirectly subsidizing Chicago-based Boeing in June. That's long after its September ruling that European loans for Airbus were illegal subsidies.

Hohmann says the gap would "prove unhelpful if the EU and the U.S. arrive at a point where they wish to sit down and negotiate a solution."

The WTO can allow a nation that's been harmed by unfair trade subsidies to raise tariffs or impose other barriers to imports from an offending country. In the Boeing case, that could see the U.S. impose charges on imports of French wines or Scottish sweaters.