Officials of US aircraft manufacturer Boeing said on Tuesday that it believes it will win its World Trade Organization case charging the European Union of paying illegal subsidies to European aircraft maker Airbus, and that the WTO will make Airbus pay back the money that it has received from governments within the EU.

Boeing claims it was this government assistance which allowed Airbus to overtake Boeing as the world’s biggest manufacturer of aircraft.

Boeing is confident that Airbus will be required to repay the funds it received from the EU nations despite the fact that the WTO has only ruled once that an illegal subsidy be repaid, and that the order in that case was not complied with.

Boeing officials said that the current case is different, insisting that it is not a question of the WTO simply telling the governments that had given the aid to Airbus that the help was illegal and that they should not to do it any more, but more a question of how the subsidies will be withdrawn.

One possible way suggested by Boeing would be to convert the subsidies into normal market loans which Airbus would have to repay.

Exacerbating the case is the fact that Airbus has already said it might look for help from France, Germany, Britain, and Spain to help it with its Airbus A380 aircraft, money that it would likely receive before the WTO makes a ruling in the case which, including appeals, will probably not be resolved for at least two years.

Meanwhile, Airbus has countercharged Boeing with receiving government subsidies in the form of incentives from the state of Washington to keep their operations there as well as in the form of defense contracts from the US government.