Aviation Subcommittee want action over “unfair subsidies”

Aviation Subcommittee want action over “unfair subsidies”

Aviation Subcommittee want action over “unfair subsidies”

   Panel members at the U.S. House Aviation Subcommittee in Washington Wednesday urged federal officials to work towards preventing “unfair subsidies” from foreign governments to civil aircraft manufacturers.
   At the hearing, witnesses from the administration and the aviation industry focused primarily on the financial assistance given by various European governments to Airbus and ways to level the “competitive playing field” for U.S. aviation manufacturers.
   According to a Commerce Department report published earlier this week, U.S. manufacturers of large civil aircraft have lost significant market share over the past 25 years to their European competitors, with U.S. aerospace industry employees dropping from 1.12 million in 1990 to the current level of 606,000.
   “Let me state clearly: this administration and the U.S. Congress cannot and will not tolerate the unfair subsidization of manufacturing, promoting, financing or development of commercial aircraft,” said subcommittee chairman John L. Mica, R-Fla.
   “The $3.7 billion in launch aid that EU governments committed for the Airbus A380 ‘super jumbo’ was the largest amount of funds committed for a single project,” said Peter Allgeier, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. “Launch aid is a particularly distortive type of subsidy because it shifts the enormous up-front expense and commercial risk of developing new aircraft from Airbus to European taxpayers.”
   The subcommittee is also reviewing the link between a foreign airline receiving preferential treatment for landing rights or slots from airports if the company purchases Airbus aircraft.
   “International intimidation, as in the case of a Turkish airline where its purchase of Airbus aircraft last year was allegedly linked as a condition for Turkey’s admission to the European Union, is another practice that bares scrutiny,” Mica said.