LONDON/BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States won approval on Wednesday to slap import tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of European goods over illegal EU subsidies handed to Airbus, threatening to trigger a tit-for-tat transatlantic trade war as the global economy falters.

The decision by the World Trade Organization pushes a 15-year corporate dispute over illegal support for plane giants to the center of caustic world trade relations and comes on top of a tariff war between Washington and Beijing.

WTO arbitrators said U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) had lost the equivalent to $7.5 billion a year in sales and disruption to deliveries of some of its largest aircraft because of cheap European government loans to arch-rival Airbus (AIR.PA).