The WTO, the body that governs international trade, is still weighing a counter-complaint from Europe, over whether the United States has illegally subsidized Boeing.

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Thursday's ruling carries no punishment, and the Europeans could appeal. But it appears to set the stage for the United States to begin considering retaliation against Europe in the airline market, possibly with tariffs.

The Obama administration touted the long-awaited ruling as a major win for its trade strategy, in a year when free trade has become a punching bag for both candidates for president, particularly Republican Donald Trump, and as the administration mounts a final-hours effort to win congressional approval for a proposed 12-nation trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The administration has also filed two new trade cases with the WTO against China in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to enforce trade violations, with the hope of persuading wavering members of Congress to back the TPP in a possible vote after the presidential election.

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“This report is a sweeping victory for the United States and its aerospace workers,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement. “We have long maintained that EU aircraft subsidies have cost American companies tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue, which this report clearly proves. We will not tolerate our trading partners ignoring the rules at the expense of American workers and their families.”

Froman asked the European Union, along with France, Germany, Spain and Britain, to end the subsidies immediately.

Boeing also hailed the decision. “Today’s historic ruling finally holds the EU and Airbus to account for their flouting of global trade rules,” said Dennis A. Muilenburg, Boeing's chairman, president and chief executive.

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