Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Boeing Airbus Loan
Speech Before Congress Regarding Airbus Industry Loans
House of Representatives - March 16, 2000
Mr. Inslee:
Mr. Speaker, it appears again that European governments may be ignoring their agreements to stop subsidizing Airbus. The British government's decision to make a loan of $868 million to Airbus for the development of another jumbo jet clearly flies in the face of the concept that the WTO rules are designed to end government subsidies to Airbus.
Now, folks have argued that Airbus is an infant industry. It is not an infant, it is not even an adolescent, it is a full adult competitor in the aircraft industry; and it ought to be treated as such.
We have tools to stop these subsidies. The WTO was designed to stop these subsidies. We are urging our government to be as aggressive as possible to demand answers as to how such a loan would be made, because we believe it will be shown that this is not a loan that was commercially available. Had it been commercially available, it would be available through commercial outlets.
This is a government acting as a venture capitalist for Airbus. We need to end these subsidies today.