Wikileaks lifts curtain on Boeing/Airbus horsetrading

The New York Times reports another set of WikiLeaks has shown the lengths the US diplomatic corps, among others, go to market defence and aerospace products. The newspaper says the cables, posted on its website shows “to a greater degree than previously known” that “diplomats are a big part of the sales force.”
The paper Sunday published diplomatic cables showing the king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States to outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as the American president's “Air Force One”. The president of Turkey wanted a slot for an astronaut on a NASA space flight and the Bangladeshi prime minister pressed the State Department to re-establish landing rights at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
“Each of these government leaders had one thing in common: they were trying to decide whether to buy billions of dollars’ worth of commercial jets from Boeing or its European competitor, Airbus,” the newspaper reported. “And United States diplomats were acting like marketing agents, offering deals to heads of state and airline executives whose decisions could be influenced by price, performance and, as with all finicky customers with plenty to spend, perks.
The United States economy, said Robert D. Hormats, under secretary for economic affairs at the State Department, increasingly relies upon exports to the fast-growing developing world — nations like China and India, as well as those in Latin America and the Middle East. “So pushing sales of big-ticket items like commercial jets, earth-moving equipment or power plants (or stepping in to object if an American company is not being given a fair chance to bid) is central to the Obama administration’s strategy to help the nation recover from the recession.”
The cables show that the United States was willing to pull out all the political stops if Boeing is in danger of losing a big deal to Airbus. In late 2007, the board of Gulf Air, the national airline of the oil-rich kingdom of Bahrain, picked Airbus for a huge sale. Boeing told the American government, which responded that there was still a way to turn the deal around, even though Airbus had offered the planes for about US$400 million less than Boeing. The crown prince and king of Bahrain, preparing for the first visit by a sitting United States president, agreed to reverse the decision after some lobbying, ordering Gulf Air to reopen negotiations with Boeing, which ended up winning the deal, which was signed while then-President Bush visited shortly afterwards.
04/01/11 defenceWeb

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2011