As reported in todays Chicago Tribune regarding Beoing sleuths in Europe and the possibility of an upcoming trade war.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/s...hi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true


A few of the more interesting lines:

.....A midnight amendment to Germany's 2005
budget showed Germany plans to help the A350 with $890 million in
government funds that originated as part of the U.S. Marshall Plan.........

.....Boeing could put its pipeline of government research funding at risk,
and supports such as a $3.2 billion tax break from Washington state
almost certainly will be examined. The EU claims Boeing since 1992 has
fed on $23 billion in government handouts, mostly NASA and Defense
Department research grants.

The EU could find that its case is tough to make. After all, Airbus has
jumped from a 30 percent market share in 1992 to 50 percent of
commercial aircraft deliveries today, so Airbus would be hard-pressed
to
prove any harm.

...To win a trade case, the U.S. would have to prove that the aid to
Airbus
has harmed Boeing. That was impossible during the 1990s, because many
of
Boeing's wounds were self-inflicted: It suffered from work stoppages,
production shutdowns and indecision about launching new airplanes.
Then-Chief Executive Philip Condit also feared an anti-Boeing backlash
that would hurt sales in Europe......

......a junior associate in Berlin turned up one big find: A report
from the City of Hamburg about a landfill along the River Elbe. In the
document, a law firm retained by Hamburg concluded that the $850
million
public works project would qualify as a subsidy because it was built
solely for Airbus' benefit.

....The transcript of a debate in Britain's House of Lords showed that
Airbus received $797 million in loans on the A330 airplane through 1997
but had made no repayments in the decade since the first loan. This
looked like proof that Airbus did not repay loans even on its most
successful airplanes.

.....Sixty years after World War II, the Marshall Plan money is
still around because Germany has charged interest on loans to
successful
companies. The searchers found Germany has loaned the money--officially
called the European Recovery Plan--several times to benefit Airbus.

.....Airbus' claims of U.S. research subsidies will not be easy for Boeing
to
shake. A visit to NASA's research center in Langley, Va., illuminates
how Boeing directs and carries out NASA research and also benefits from
the findings.......

.....Still, the argument on research is as complex as the rest of the trade
fight. The European Union has allocated nearly $1 billion to a new
aeronautics research budget, and Boeing's subsidy sleuths believe they
can prove much of the research is done for Airbus' benefit.....

Launch aid by plane


A300/A310 Germany $1.55 billion U.K None France $2.05 billion Spain
$233 million Total $3.83 billion A320 Germany $702 million U.K $567
million France $672 million Spain $87 million Total $2.03 billion
A330/A340 Germany $2.01 billion U.K $1.04 billion France $1.45 billion
Spain $270 million Total $4.77 billion A330-200 Germany None U.K None
France $58 million Spain None Total $58 million A340-500 / A340-600
Germany None U.K. $215 million France $337 million Spain $75 million
Total $627 million A380 Germany $1.07 billion U.K $867 million France
$1.37 billion Spain $426 million Total $3.73 billion
Note: Dollar amounts reflect payments in each country's own currency,
indexed to 2003, and converted at rates applicable in the year of
disbursement.

Overview of infrastructure subsidies for the Airbus A380

GERMANY: $857 million

$850 million: Spent by the City of Hamburg to fill a part of the River
Elbe to accommodate the expansion of a production facility.

More than $7 million: Provided as a grant by the Land of Lower Saxony
for the expansion of its facilities in the City of Nordenham.

U.K.: $408 million

$376 million: Provided to fund the Broughton site.

$32 million: Given as a land grant from the National Assembly for
Wales.

FRANCE: $298 million

$206 million: A public investment for an assembly site in Toulouse.

$82.6 million: Provided for road construction between Langon (port on
the Garonne River) and a production site in Toulouse.

$9.7 million: Provided for construction in ports and along the Garonne
River to accommodate transportation of A380 fuselages.

SPAIN: $143 million

$143 million: Investments made in Puerto de Santa Maria, Illescas,
Puerto Real and La Rinconada plants.

Note: Euros and British pounds were converted into dollars at average
2003 exchange rates. Maps are not to scale.

Sources: European governments' documents, ESRI, Boeing Co.