[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 23]
[House]
[Page 31715]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WTO AIRBUS TANKER RULING

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, after 23 straight months of job losses, 
we must do more to preserve and to create American jobs, and we must 
ensure a fair and a level playing field for U.S. manufacturers.
  The World Trade Organization recently found that Airbus has been 
receiving illegal subsidies that violate global rules and stifle real 
competition in the aerospace industry. We should not reward these 
illegal trade practices. As such, the Pentagon should take into account 
this ruling when considering bids for the next generation air refueling 
tanker contract.
  Awarding this contract to Airbus means the loss of at least 14,000 
American jobs to Europe. In today's economy, we cannot afford any more 
job loss. We cannot continue to allow our foreign competitors an unfair 
economic advantage nor can we let our domestic defense manufacturing 
base erode as we have.
  I strongly urge the Department of Defense to consider these billions 
of dollars in illegal European subsidies. When bidding the tanker 
contract, it is time to put our workers, American workers, and our 
security first.

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