FILE PHOTO: European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom attends an interview with Reuters in Geneva, Switzerland June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will impose its own tariffs “in due course” in its WTO dispute over aircraft subsidies after the United States hit EU imports with increased duties related to illegal subsidies for Airbus, EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said on Friday.

“We regret the choice of the U.S. to move ahead with tariffs. This step leaves us no alternative but to follow through in due course with our own tariffs in the Boeing case, where the U.S. has been found in breach of WTO rules,” Malmstrom said.

The WTO has found that both Airbus and its U.S. rival Boeing BA.N received billions of dollars of illegal subsidies in a pair of cases that have run for 15 years. The United States imposed tariffs on $7.5 billion of EU imports on Friday. An adjudication on damages in the Boeing case is expected early in 2020.