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Stealing American jobs

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By PAUL SHEARON

Special To The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2009

The World Trade Organization's (WTO) landmark Airbus ruling last month declared illegal billions of dollars of European Union subsidies given to this French-based aerospace company in an attempt to steal American jobs.

This historic ruling can protect U.S. workers and steady our faltering economy - but only if the Obama administration and Congress stand up to the French trade cheats and enforce the decisions in the Air Force refueling tanker competition.

Last year, the Pentagon handed Airbus the refueling tanker contract, which will support 44,000 high-wage, high-skill jobs.

At a time when unemployment is at its highest in nearly three decades and our industrial base is withering, our own government allowed the French firm to steal these jobs from under our noses - including 1,100 in Florida - even though Airbus used $5 billion in illegal subsidies to artificially underbid the competition.

Despite the Bush administration's desire to hand this contract over to the French, the watchdog Government Accounting Office spiked the deal, saying that the competition was unfair.

This year, the Obama Defense Department will reconsider the contract. It must do so with the WTO ruling against Airbus in mind, as well as the need to support our high-tech aerospace workers.

The WTO's decision now provides the Obama administration and Congress the tool they need to make sure the French play by the rules.

The Defense Department must discount the value of subsidies that the WTO has ruled to be illegal in order for the competition to be fair, consistent with the WTO ruling and in keeping with fair trade principles.

With the stakes this high for our economy and workers, we can't afford to do any less.

Paul Shearon is secretary treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), which represents over 80,000 highly skilled professional and technical workers in the private, federal and public sectors throughout the U

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