U.S. threatens to retaliate against EU aircraft law
Date: 09-Dec-99
Country: USA
Author: Adam Entous
U.S. officials say the law, restricting the use of older aircraft fitted
with noise mufflers, or "hush kits," discriminates against American
manufacturers. EU officials say the law, due to come into force in May
next year, would cut noise pollution around congested European airports.
Unless the EU agreed to U.S.-backed changes, Washington may seek to
strip the EU of its role in the International Civil Aviation
Organisation, and could deny European carriers expanded access to the
U.S. market, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. Congress could also retaliate. One proposal would ban the
Anglo-French supersonic Concorde from landing in the United States if
the European rule took effect.
"I haven't seen any real progress" in negotiations with the EU, said
David Aaron, under secretary for international trade at the U.S.
Commerce Department.
"We're ... getting to the stage where we may have to take some action
because we really don't have a suggestion or a proposal from the
European side that would lift this shadow that this regulation has cast
over the market."
The "hush kits" dispute is one of several between trading giants the
United States and the European Union.
The United States imposed $191 million of sanctions on EU exports
earlier this year after the WTO ruled the bloc's current banana import
system favoured former colonies in the Caribbean over Latin American
growers and U.S. marketing giants such as Chiquita Brands International
and Dole Food Co.
A dispute over hormone-treated beef has led to $117 million of sanctions
on EU goods.
Last week, a heated U.S.-EU dispute over farm export subsidies bogged
down World Trade Organisation negotiations in Seattle. The talks ended
in failure.
The "hush kits" law would ban the use from April 2002 of non-EU aircraft
fitted with noise mufflers that are not already flying in the bloc.
The measure has angered the United States, which asserts it is
discriminatory and has already cost the aviation industry $2 billion
before even entering into force by lowering the value of old aircraft.
The EU argues "hush kits" do not reduce noise enough, and merely prolong
the life of obsolete, polluting aircraft that should be taken out of
service.
Washington wants the EU to suspend the measure unconditionally, EU
officials say.
But the EU is only prepared to suspend it until the General Assembly of
the International Civil Aviation Organisation in September 2001, in the
hope that the United States will agree there to sign up to international
standards that will render the EU law obsolete.
The EU went ahead with unilateral measures following the organisation's
failure to agree international noise reduction norms.
