Brussels, 07/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - The preliminary ruling delivered by the WTO on 4 September on the complaint submitted by the United States in 2004 against subsidies to Airbus (DS 316) says that some, though not all, state aid granted to the European aeroplane constructor for the design and development of the A-380 was illegal. That was what diplomats, quoted by AFP, stated, rectifying the reports in the Wall Street Journal which claimed that all the aid granted to Airbus had been ruled illegal by the WTO. “This is a more mixed, more complicated outcome. It upholds some of the US claims, but also rejects a good number of others,” said a diplomat. According to another source, the WTO threw out 70% of the American claims, its ruling confirming that launch aid investment may be a permitted way for governments to become partners. Neither Airbus, nor Boeing, nor the officials of Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton or her US counterpart Ron Kirk have made any comment. Ashton's spokesman Lutz Güllner said only that a provisional ruling on the European complaint against public support for American aeroplane maker Boeing (DS 354) - which is likely to come to the same conclusion - is expected in spring 2010. (E.H./transl.rt)