Japan has rejected a request for it to participate in talks between the European Union and USA aimed at ending subsidies for large commercial aircraft programmes.
Last week EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson asked Japan to join the negotiations when he met the country's minister for economy, trade and industry, Shoichi Nakagawa, in Brussels. Nakagawa declined.
The Japanese ministry of economy, trade and industry says of the EU-US talks: "We will carefully observe progress, while having no intention to get involved in the bilateral negotiation."
Japanese manufacturers have had key roles in several Boeing aircraft programmes over recent years. Late in 2003 Fuji, Kawasaki and Mitsubishi were selected to build 35% of the airframe of the new 7E7, which was launched early in 2004 with a 50-aircraft order from All Nippon Airways and followed late in the year by a 30-aircraft commitment from Japan Airlines.
The Japanese government has pledged to provide financial support to the local companies through a multi-billion-dollar loan scheme. The three first-tier manufacturers, represented by Japan Aircraft Development (JADC), must work out details of a master programme contract with Boeing before funds are released to them, however. Talks between JADC and Boeing have already run much longer than expected and are continuing.
Japan has rejected European suggestions that 7E7-related loans would represent an indirect subsidy to Boeing. Its decision not to join the EU-US talks comes just over a week after trade officials from both sides of the Atlantic announced they had agreed to three months of discussions aimed at putting an end to the issue of subsidies to Airbus and Boeing.
Source: Flight International
