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8:04 pm, October 02, 2017
Reuters
MANCHESTER (Reuters) — Britain, caught in the crossfire
of a damaging trade dispute between planemakers Boeing and Bombardier, said on
Sunday it would fight its corner to protect thousands of jobs put at risk in
Northern Ireland.
Trade minister Liam Fox said Britain was working to find
a resolution after the United States last week responded to a complaint by
Boeing by imposing a 220-percent preliminary duty on Bombardier’s CSeries jets,
whose wings are made in Belfast.
“We’ve said that we will fight our corner,” Fox told the
annual Conservative Party conference. “We’ve been caught in the crossfire of a
much larger dispute.”
“It worries me that we’re seeing a rise in protectionist
behaviour ... the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development]
itself has pointed out protectionism always ends badly. If we can get them to
have a resolution, which is what we are trying to do quietly, so much the
better.”
The tariff, which will take effect only if the U.S.
International Trade Commission backs Boeing in a final decision expected in
2018, has dealt a major blow to the Canadian company’s flagship project.
It has also cast a huge shadow over Northern Ireland,
where Bombardier is by far the most important manufacturer and a pillar of
Belfast’s economy, employing 4,200 people and supporting thousands more in the
supply chain.
And it also undermines the assurances by Brexit
campaigners such as Fox that free trade and London’s close ties with Washington
will drive Britain’s prosperity and global influence after it leaves the
European Union in 2019.
James Brokenshire, the British minister for Northern
Ireland, echoed Prime Minister Theresa May in saying that Boeing was not
behaving in a way the British government would expect a long-term defence
partner to behave.
May and other senior ministers have been highly critical
of Boeing, suggesting it could miss out on future defence contracts, after the
row put into jeopardy the local economy in Northern Ireland, home to a small
party that May relies on to govern in Westminster.
“I say to Boeing this case is unjustified and
unwarranted. This action is not what is expected of a long-term partner to the
U.K. They need to get round the table and secure a negotiated outcome to this
dispute quickly,” Brokenshire said.
May has warned that Boeing was undermining its commercial
relationship with Britain and has spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump on the
issue.
However, May is unlikely to retaliate against Boeing,
which says the firm and its suppliers account for more than 18,700 jobs in the
U.K. Fox implied the government was working behind the scenes to find a
resolution.
Northern Ireland is the poorest of the United Kingdom’s
four parts and is mired in political difficulties after emerging from decades
of armed sectarian conflict.
Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, says it is
upholding trade rules and not trying to damage the CSeries. It accuses Canada
and Britain of unfairly subsidising Bombardier and says Bombardier has
illegally dumped its products in the U.S. single-aisle airplane market out of
desperation.
“The support that the U.K. provided to the Bombardier
operation in Belfast was and remains compliant with international
requirements,” Brokenshire said.Speech
Original post: the-japan-news.com
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