NEED HELP LOADING THAT?:

Europeans steer away from U.S. trade fight (J. Kanter and D. Phillips, OCTOBER 6, 2005, International Herald Tribune

European governments were moving late Wednesday to defuse one of the most serious trade fights between the European Union and the United States, examining moves to suspend state funding to the Airbus A350, a planned rival to Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.

But a French pledge to continue to commit money to the Airbus project drew a negative reaction from the United States, which said negotiations would become even more difficult going forward.

While governments were considering delaying any aid for the A350, the EU trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, and the Airbus chief executive, Gustav Humbert, said last month that they were willing to adapt current Airbus funding, which consists of contentious direct subsidies to develop Airbus products.

One plan now being considered by European negotiators could be to change the nature of the existing support, possibly by taking direct subsidies away from Airbus and replacing them with alternate forms of support, said people who are familiar with the situation. They declined to be more specific.

Given that they're the enemy, why not let them waste their money on this albatross?

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 6, 2005 8:34 AM