EU-US relations hurt by French spat over tanker jets [fr]

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Boeing paid for a study which found that an aerial tanker built by the plane maker would create 10 times more new American jobs than a plan from a consortium between Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

Northrop and EADS said they are withdrawing from the race, and Northrop stated that the bidding process was skewed to favour Boeing.

According to the study, choosing Boeing to develop and build the tanker should create an estimated 62,605 to 70,706 new US jobs over the life of the contract.

By contrast, the Northrop-EADS tanker would lead to the creation of no more than 7,080 new US jobs, the study said.

"The US government, I say, obliged EADS to leave the competition for the US tanker jets," Fillon said. "I think that the attitude of the US government is a serious incompliance to the rules of loyal competition established between our countries," the French prime minister added.

French State Secretary for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche was even more critical. The word "scandal" was too weak to describe the offence, he said. "There is no reason why a technology, which by the way is superior to the American one, should be ousted from the market," Lellouche stated.

Airbus President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Enders also criticised the US government's "bias" in awarding the tender.

Louis Gallois, CEO of EADS, said that his company would not now build a plant in Alabama as previously envisaged, because the facility was part of a project to assemble the Airbus A300 on US soil. This project, he said, was no longer on the table. The Boeing B767 is a smaller plane with poorer capacities, he added.

Elysée spokesperson Luc Chatel said French President Nicolas Sarkozy would raise the issue with US President Barack Obama during his visit to the States at the end of March.

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