By Joseph D. Szydlowski

(AXcess News) Washington - The U.S. Air Force should not reward manufacturers who violate international trade laws, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from Washington, Kansas, Missouri and other states said Wednesday.

"I don't know about you, but I don't think our European friends should be rewarded with U.S. contracts for products they illegally subsidize," said Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Bond joined colleagues from the House of Representatives to criticize a $35 billion contract with Airbus for a fleet of refueling planes.

The World Trade Organization found Airbus guilty of violating international trade laws.

"Airbus and the European Union have refused to allow fair competition. They use the aerospace industry as a jobs program, and they use billions of dollars in illegal launch aid to fund it," Murray said. "The United States government has taken position that the Airbus subsidies are illegal and unfair.

"How can our government then turn around and ignore that position as we look to purchase a new tanker fleet - especially when the WTO has ruled that we are correct?"

The Air Force has been trying to replace its tankers, which refuel planes in mid-flight, for several years because the aircraft date to the 1950s. After a tangled web of legal problems in a 2004 attempt, Airbus won the contract in 2008. But after protests, a final decision was delayed.

Now, the Air Force is making a third try to replace the obsolete aircraft and accepted bids from Boeing and Airbus.

Both companies filed lawsuits alleging the other was accepting unfair subsidies. In September, the WTO ruled that Airbus illegally accepted subsidies from the European Union, including about $5 billion for 1,000 A330s. That, the lawmakers said, gives the company an unfair advantage in the marketplace and threatens U.S. jobs, industry, trade law integrity and national security.

"They subsidized their way in to a market, drove out two U.S. competitors and took 20 percent market share from Boeing," said Brownback, the leader of the legislators' coalition. "I'm a free-trade guy, but you've got to enforce trade rules."

The WTO does not have power to sanction violators. Instead, it relies on individual governments to enforce its rules, said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.

According to an open letter to President Barack Obama, signed by 39 representatives, the Air Force is on track to make the contract final next year.

Inslee said the Air Force could address the imbalance by including the subsidies in the value of the contract and then determine which company to buy from.

"There are, on very rare occasions, an advantage to being a lawyer," Inslee said. "We have been looking at this, and it is clear that we have the perfect legal right - and I believe, the legal obligation - to take into consideration this multiple-millions-of-dollars-per-plane illegal subsidization."

He said that nations retain the right to shop domestically for national security products, such as refueling tankers. Thus, the United States doesn't have to take bids from Airbus.

Other legislators worried about U.S. workers.

"Now that the WTO has ruled that what the EU and Airbus did is illegal, we don't think they should be allowed to continue benefiting at the expense of our workers," Murray said.

Bond suggested the Pentagon consider U.S. manufacturing ability as a national security issue. 

"Does the president, does the Pentagon want a situation where the critical component of the tanker that will be refueling our aircraft be manufactured in a foreign country?  We have very good relations now, but life will change," Bond said. "We can't afford to undercut American companies, to allow our defense industrial base to be destroyed."

Two think tanks, the conservative Frontiers of Freedom and the liberal Progressive Policy Institute, joined the lawmakers' call.

"Cheaters never prosper. My parents drilled that into my head," George C. Landrith, president of Frontiers of Freedom, said. "Airbus is testing this proposition. Airbus has been testing this proposition and getting away with it for decades."

Brownback said that all options are being considered, such as tariffs, or asking the Air Force to consider Inslee's idea, but he wants to see if the Pentagon responds to the lawmakers' call.

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire