US aerospace trade head slams EU's "belligerence"

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Thursday 20 June 2013

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Background:

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Douglass said there was an emerging feeling in the US that "some countries, mainly France and Germany, and occasionally Canada, exploit the US market."

Mr Douglass said Washington "gives equal treatment to Airbus and they [the Europeans] reap huge economic benefit from the US market, at the same time as [France and Germany] fight us in the UN and around the world. If that continues, don't you think trade would be affected by that, and sooner or later we could say we are not going to give them access?"

In Mr Douglass' opinion, "There is nervousness about the sabre-rattling by the EU on trade issues. People are getting tired of [cases being taken] to the WTO [World Trade Organisation] and every other damn thing that comes down the pike". He said "There will be a reaction to the economic belligerence by the EU . . . every time we see Pascal Lamy [EU trade commissioner] threaten to sue us over something it runs against the grain of how Americans think about Europe. It is like a neighbour who is constantly calling the cops and complaining," Mr Douglass said.