Even The Best Of Friends...

The US and Britain may be the closest of allies, but money has a way of dividing even the best of friends... especially when that money came in the form of a $9 million grant to Airbus from the local government in Wales.

The Welsh Assembly says that money goes toward training new workers at the Airbus factory where wing assemblies for the A380 and upcoming A350 will be made. In the latest round of heated discussions over government subsidies issued to the European Consortium, the US is challenging that grant as illegal under rules established by the World Trade Organization.

Airbus says the money to train more workers is vital as it ramps up to produce parts for as many as 2,000 aircraft at the plant in Northern Wales.

"It's within the current rules that we have that are very transparent," Airbus spokesman Phil Swash told the BBC when the grants were announced.

"This isn't launch aid, which is what the complaint going through the World Trade Organization at the moment is about," said Martin Evans, external research fellow for the Wales Transport Research Center. "This is for employment and training, which is allowable under EU rules. I certainly don't think it's any different from what would happen at a state level in the United States."

"What we can't do is put our aerospace industry in Wales on hold while this is sorted out," Evans added. "This work could very easily end up somewhere like China instead."

And then there's the oft-repeated statement -- presented this time around by an EU spokesperson -- that Airbus isn't getting anything that Boeing hasn't received from its own government before.

"Boeing receives massive and wide-ranging government support," said Wales Euro-MP Eluned Morgan, European spokesperson on industry for the Labour Party. "Not least, it benefits tremendously from indirect subsides through NASA and defence department research and development programs.

"To complain about this Welsh assembly grant is just sheer hypocrisy," she added.

Well now...

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.wto.org