Unlikely duo fights Airbus subsidies

President Bush last week made the Boeing Co.’s fight against Airbus subsidies official national policy.

As you may have heard, the president held a quick huddle on Friday with Boeing commercial airplanes chief Alan Mulally – a Bush contributor, by the way – before calling for an end to the “unfair” aid to Airbus, and threatening to go before the World Trade Organization.

“It’s unfair to this American company that these European governments continue to subsidize Airbus,” Bush said in a brief Boeing Field press conference. “We believe in free trade. We want that free trade to be fair as well.”

In doing so, the conservative Bush lined himself up right alongside Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, the former Mom in Tennis Shoes who is remaking herself as the new Senator From Boeing with her series of speeches attacking Airbus and its subsidies.

At the same time, Bush put himself at odds with his ideological allies at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. The conservative Olympia think-tank is highly critical of the tax breaks Boeing’s getting from the state of Washington for building the 7E7 here in Everett – a position that’s been adopted by none other than Airbus itself.

And I thought Olympic gymnastics scoring was convoluted.

So what’s going on here? Let’s take a stab in the dark.

Bush is trailing in the polls here in Washington, and Boeing’s a major economic and cultural force in a state with 11 electoral votes. So it’s not surprising that the president would court support this way. It’s also something that can be done on behalf of an American company (and its workers) that only the president can do.

(By the way, Boeing officials tell me that Democratic candidate John Kerry’s campaign has also indicated its support on the Airbus subsidy issue.)

Likewise, Murray is up for re-election this year, against U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, the same Spokane Republican who sent House Speaker Tom Foley home from D.C. back in 1994. It’s not surprising that Murray wants to rally support from a traditional Democrat power base – labor.

What’s the state’s most politically powerful union? The Machinists at Boeing. What’s its main issue? Jobs. How can Murray help with that? Push the 100-jet 767 tanker deal – and go after the subsidies that help Airbus sell its jets cheaper than Boeing.

So that’s how it came to be that Murray issued a statement Friday praising President Bush. “I look forward to working with him … and the entire administration to support an industry that is critical for our economy and security,” she said.

Then there’s the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. On a philosophical level, it’s opposed to giving preferential tax breaks to one company. If tax breaks and regulatory reform are good for Boeing, foundation officers argue persuasively, wouldn’t they be good for small business as well?

But I suspect there’s more. The 7E7 deal was a clear victory for Democratic Gov. Gary Locke and his administration. With the governor’s mansion up for grabs this fall, it’s in the interest of Republican party supporters to find flaws in the agreement, and if Locke and the Democrats violated international free trade agreements, well, that’s a flaw to be exploited.

Certainly Airbus thinks so. The Boeing-Airbus subsidy issue has made headlines in Europe all summer, and in just about every article I’ve seen, someone from Airbus has mentioned the state’s 7E7 deal.

Just Monday, the BBC reported from London that “questions have also been raised about the $3.2 billion incentive package offered by Washington state to secure the assembly plant for Boeing’s new 7E7 Dreamliner plane.”

Boeing officials, for their part, note that Airbus doesn’t mention that it took advantage of similar tax breaks when it built a flight training center in Miami and set up a jet maintenance facility in Louisiana.

The next round of sniping will come next month when American and European trade officials next meet.

Stay tuned.

Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.