The US and the EU have reached an agreement in their almost 17-year dispute over aeroplane subsidies, canceling for five years one set of Trump-era tariffs that had strained ties.

Since 2004, the two sides have been fighting at the World Trade Organization in parallel proceedings over subsidies for US planemaker Boeing and European rival Airbus, each of which said exposing the other to an unlawful competition.

They consented in March to a four-month deferral of duties on $11.5 billion in commodities ranging from EU cheese and wine to US tobacco and alcohol, as authorized by the WTO. Businesses have contributed more than $3.3 billion in levies so far.

They announced on Tuesday that they would postpone tariffs for five years, in keeping with a Reuters report from Monday, while collaborating on the overall deal on subsidies which they had hoped to reach in March. “Grounding the Airbus-Boeing dispute provides a significant confidence boost for EU-US relations,” EU trade head Valdis Dombrovskis said at a press conference following an EU-US summit with US President Joe Biden.

According to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the two countries agreed to explicit declarations about what help might be provided to big civil aircraft manufacturers. They will try to offset investments in aircraft by "non-market players," especially China, she added.

Others have been establishing their businesses, she claimed, while the US and the EU were too preoccupied with battling one other to pay notice.

“The agreement...includes a pledge for meaningful cooperative engagement to address the danger posed by China's intentions to create an aviation sector based on non-market practices,” she added.

Both parties expressed confidence that the Airbus/Boeing issue will be resolved in five years. The US and the EU have agreed to form a working group on the problem, offer finance on market conditions, be open about R&D spending, prevent support that might hurt the other side, and collaborate to combat “non-market practices” everywhere.

Airbus claimed that the agreement leveled the playing field and eliminated “lose-lose” taxes which had already been placed on jets. According to Boeing, the agreement commits the EU to address launch aid.

Biden, and ministers from France and Germany, both have Airbus factories, praised the "great progress." WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo expressed her pleasure that the two parties had demonstrated that seemingly intractable difficulties could be addressed. Airbus and Boeing shares were marginally higher the same day.

Former EU member Britain, which was also engaged in the issue as a location for Airbus production, stated that it anticipated a similar agreement within days. On Wednesday, Tai will meet with her British colleague, Liz Truss.

The EU-US accord eliminates one of two key trade irritants leftover from Donald Trump's administration, being the other tariffs enforced on EU steel and aluminum imports on national security grounds.

The European Commission, which supervises EU trade policy, postponed a planned June 1 doubling of retaliatory duties on Harley-Davidson motorcycles and motorboats lasting up to six months last month and stopped from imposing duties on additional US items ranging from lipstick to sports shoes.

Brussels and Washington have indicated that they might work to eliminate excess global steel capacity, which would be primarily concentrated in China.

Since many US metal manufacturers and employees still support the metals tariffs, which further apply to other nations such as China, the US may find it more difficult to remove them.

According to an EU official, the two sides had a “robust” debate about metals, but they disagreed on the reason for the tariffs. The EU wants to get the matter sorted by December.

Brussels is also promoting a new “positive agenda” on trade with Washington, including the formation of an alliance to promote WTO reform.

The two countries committed to working together on trade and technological issues, like developing comparable standards and easing commerce in artificial intelligence.