In the autumn of 1999 Phil Condit, then the chief executive of Boeing, travelled to Washington for a meeting with the US government that was supposed to launch the biggest dispute ever to be put to the World Trade Organisation.

The executive council of the world's largest aircraft maker had authorised Mr Condit to support President Bill Clinton's administration in filing a WTO case aimed at preventing European governments from providing more than $3bn to help Airbus launch the A380 - a 555-seat jet that would compete with Boeing's ageing flagship, the 747.