April 2, 2005
SMOOT POINT:
Europe’s spats with US bode ill for free trade (Irwin Stelzer, 4/03/05, Sunday Times of London)
WHEN Peter Mandelson slammed the telephone down on Bob Zoellick during a conversation over subsidies received by Airbus, he was applying to the former US trade representative and current State Department No 2 the intimidating tactics honed in dealing with Britain’s editors and reporters. If, indeed, that is what happened. Staff at the European trade commissioner’s office say it didn’t, and that the conversation ended with the simultaneous slamming down of receivers.Both sides say negotiations will continue. But success is far from assured. America is determined to end the EU’s subsidised financing of Boeing’s leading competitor, by bringing suit at the World Trade Organisation if need be. The Europeans know that, without state aid, Airbus cannot finance the development of new aircraft. Burdened with more than double-digit unemployment, they are determined to preserve uneconomic jobs by continuing the subsidies.
Airbus, like the high euro, is a vanity project, unconnected to economic reality. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 2, 2005 8:06 PM
Think of it as their NASA.
Posted by: Randall Voth at April 3, 2005 3:25 AMI wonder if the Clintonistas trembled when French bureaucrats hung up on them? Quell horror? Can you imagine the how amusing it must be to have some jerk in Brussels think he's exerting pressure by hanging up on you?
Many, many heavy tomes couldn't contain all the hilarious anecdotes about French sensibilities.
Randall, I beg to differ. You may feel the money is better spent elsewhere, but NASA isn't a make work project.
Posted by: erp at April 3, 2005 11:21 AMNASA is a disgusting boondoggle which if allowed to continue to purulate will discredit the notion of space exploration for the next century. It is much wiser for us to encourage the private sector and defend the rights of individuals to develop the Moon, Mars and G-d knows what else instead of allowing the statist thumb of the UN to dictate the results as current treaty does.
Airbus is a disaster. Let us simply no longer allow it to land here, until the Euros decide to play ball.
Posted by: bart at April 3, 2005 2:09 PM