Winners And Losers

Floor Speech

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concern about the illegal subsidies that have been given to Airbus by the European governments. It's been widely reported that the World Trade Organization found the EU guilty of providing Airbus with billions of dollars in illegal and improper subsidies. These subsidies gave Airbus an unfair advantage for years, costing good-paying American jobs. At the same time we're fighting Europeans over their illegal subsidies, our Nation is considering buying $35 billion worth of Airbus aerial refueling tankers.

Now who wins if we ignore these subsidies? European taxpayers will get a huge return on their illegal investment in subsidies for Airbus and European workers who are designing and building the Airbus airplanes.

Who loses? U.S. workers, who will lose their jobs, and I think our men and women in uniform, who might get an illegally subsidized tanker instead of the best tanker for their mission.

Airbus' history of subsidies should not be ignored in this tanker competition.

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