WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it will impose tariffs on $7.5 billion in European imports beginning Oct. 18 in a case involving European Union subsidies to the plane maker Airbus.

The latest escalation in the administration’s tariffs will open a new chapter in the trade wars that are depressing the world economy and heightening fears of a global recession. It comes just as the Trump administration is in the midst of trying to negotiate a resolution to its high-stakes trade war with China.

The administration received a green light earlier Wednesday from the World Trade Organization, which ruled that the United States could impose the tariffs as retaliation for illegal aid that the 28-country EU gave to Airbus in its competition with its American rival Boeing.

Culminating a 15-year fight over the EU’s subsidizing of Airbus, the administration’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it plans to publish a list of targeted products later Wednesday o..