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AIA TESTIFIES ON COMPETITIVENESS OF U.S. AEROSPACE INDUSTRY July 26, 2001-WASHINGTON, D.C. In testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, AIA President and CEO John W. Douglass said that national policy has not responded to the transition of U.S. aerospace from being a primarily defense- driven industry, to that of commercial. The future of the U.S. aerospace industry depends on unfettered access to the global marketplace, he said, and our national and economic security depends on our ability to overcome structural obstacles to that goal. "It is important to point out areas where our competitors have certain advantages from their governments, but we should focus our actions on those improvements to our American system of product development that will make us more competitive," said Douglass. He said that the U.S. aerospace industry is facing challenges from Europe for leadership in aerospace, which has fundamentally different views on the proper role of government in assisting industry. Douglass noted that subsidies and barriers, such as the unilateral effort by the European Union to bar U.S. aircraft from European skies, regardless of their compliance with international noise standards, distort markets and puts American manufacturers and the U.S. economy at a disadvantage. Douglass also said that our own internal policies create significant obstacles to U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace. He cited our export licensing process, which is based on philosophical underpinnings fifty years old. Douglass added that the aerospace industry was asking Congress for the rapid passage of an updated Export Administration Act and restoration of funding for the Export-Import Bank. Douglass said another obstacle to competitiveness was the decline in aerospace R&D investment by the government. Aeronautics research has dropped 40 percent in the last six years, a trend that continues in the latest budget submission for FY2002. Douglass praised President Bush, however, for the increase in aerospace research in the 2002 defense budget. He noted that our investment in R&D has a direct impact on our attracting the people we need to maintain U.S. leadership in aerospace. The Presidential Commission on the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry will focus on these obstacles to U.S. competitiveness and make recommendations on the role of the federal government on the aerospace industry, Douglass said. -AIA- Contact: Alexis Allen, AIA P.A. Rel. 2001-19 07.26.01 |
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