Boeing Quiet on Government Support for 787 Program
Boeing is not ready to talk about the tax breaks that it won from Washington state or about other forms of government support for its 787 program - issues that Airbus insists be on the table as part of an acceptable resolution to the US-Europe aviation trade dispute. The tax breaks are “all irrelevant”, says Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Alan Mulally. “Every state, every country, does what it can do to improve its business climate. Airbus can get exactly the same advantages in Washington state, Brazil or Japan if it decides to do business there.”
Mulally said here on Tuesday that Boeing’s view is that the 1992 transatlantic agreement on large civil aircraft “was an agreement to start limiting launch aid, with a view to reducing it to zero. Instead, the Europeans institutionalized launch aid and violated the terms of the agreement.” (In fact, the only reference to any reduction in aid in the document, beyond what was implemented in 1992, is a line in the preamble that refers to “progressively reducing” government support, and no end goal or timetable for doing that was included.)
Mulally also dismissed European concerns about other government subsidies: “Anyone has access to NASA data - we don’t have any secret projects with them - and Pentagon support is minuscule in terms of the knowledge and funds transferred from the military to the commercial side.” Boeing has no official position on legislation that would ban EADS from competing for the US Air Force’s tanker business as long as the trade dispute was unresolved, “but I understand how people would feel that way.” — Bill Sweetman
