In retaliation against US subsidies for Boeing manufacturer, the European Union is imposing a 15% tariffs on $4bn (€3.37 billion) of U.S. services. The EU won the right to exercise the tariffs plan in October after the World Trade Organization (WTO) had granted its authorization, according to Reuters.

“Regrettably, in spite of our best efforts due to the lack of progress from the U.S. side, we can confirm that the European Union will later today exercise our rights and impose counter-measures awarded to us by the WTO,” EU Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday, November 10th.

The EU tariffs come about a week before regulators are expected to clear the Boeing 737 MAX for service after a safety grounding of more than 19 months.

The WTO deemed illegal some U.S. support for Boing, the biggest competitor of Europe’s Airbus. Therefore, the decision was made to let the EU make up for this by a limited amount of penalties. The rivalry has not started just recently. As a part of the transatlantic dispute, which traces back to 16 years ago, in 2019, the WTO allowed the U.S. to take action against the EU as a response to illegal state support for the EU plane manufacturer Airbus. The tariffs on the EU products, such as whiskeys, wines, and cheese, were worth $7.5 billion (€6.3 billion).

This time, tariffs of 15% will be applied to U.S. aircraft imported to Europe and 25% border tax to a range of other items, including orange juice, tobacco, cheese, sweet potatoes, and ketchup.