“Strategic Trade in Large Commercial Aircraft: Europe versus America”

Lawrence, Philip. (1999) “Strategic Trade in Large Commercial Aircraft: Europe versus America” . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 1999 (6th), June 2-5, 1999, pages 33, Pittsburgh, PA.

Abstract

This paper addresses key aspects of the de facto industrial policy of the USA towards its aerospace sector and its implications for the trade in commercial class aircraft. I argue that US trade in aerospace products is the sine-qua-non of strategic trade and that the success of this sector results from a powerful and effective industrial policy which subsidizes commercial aerospace manufacturing. In consequence I suggest that the numerous US complaints in the 1980s and 1990s about subsidy and the role of the state in the European commercial aircraft industry are based on a misunderstanding of the real character of the American aerospace industry and arguably the aerospace industry per se.