Those Europeans really love open markets. YAH sureFriday December 18, 7:13 pm Eastern Time
Europe resists U.S. call for further
Airbus data
WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Europe resisted U.S.
requests Friday for more information on the business plans of
Airbus Industrie and government support for a new generation of jumbojet.
European Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan said the European Union believed it had already
provided the information required under a 1992 transatlantic pact to limit government support for the
commercial aircraft industry.
''If the United States thinks they are entitled under the agreement to more information, they must
give us the proper motivation for it,'' he told reporters after a twice-yearly EU-U.S. leadership
summit.
Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said afterward that both President Bill Clinton and U.S.
Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky had raised the Airbus issue in the talks.
Of particular concern, Eizenstat said, was European government support for the A3XX, an as yet
unlaunched Airbus proposal to challenge the strength of Boeing Co's (NYSE:BA - news) 747 in the
large-capacity market.
The requests for further information have angered Airbus which on Thursday said Boeing was
making the European consortium a scapegoat for the U.S. company's own operational problems.
''Boeing should look at its own operations instead of making a scapegoat out of Airbus,'' an Airbus
spokesman said from Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France.
A Boeing spokesman dismissed the comment. ''We've been very up front about our production
problems and what we are doing to address them,'' said Boeing's Tim Neale.
The two companies compete intensely for worldwide sales of airliners seating more than 100
passengers.
Slim profit margins due to competition for market share and production problems have taken their
toll at Boeing which early this month announced 20,000 in job cuts and a gloomy financial forecast
for the next two years.
The 1992 bilateral treaty says government launch aid for commercial aircraft must not exceed 33
percent of research and development costs and caps indirect support at around 3 percent of annual
sales.
Airbus is a consortium made up of France's Aerospatiale , British Aerospace Plc (quote from Yahoo!
UK & Ireland: BA.L) , DaimlerChrysler (NYSE:DCX - news) Aerospace and Spain's Casa.
More Quotes
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The Boeing Co (NYSE:BA - news)
DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DCX - news)
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