Noise ban decision delayed to avert new EU-US trade war

Date: 04/03/1999

By Renée Cordes

THE EU has bowed to intense pressure from Washington and delayed a decision on plans to outlaw new aircraft equipped with 'hush kits' from next month.

The proposed ban on planes fitted with the kits, which reduce the noise levels from aircraft to the levels required under international rules, has prompted furious complaints from the US.

It claims that the move would hit more than €1-billion worth of American-made aircraft and equipment, and Congress has threatened to retaliate by imposing a ban on flights to New York by Air France and British Airways' flagship supersonic aircraft Concorde, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this week.

Congressman James Oberstar, who sponsored the bill to bar Concorde, told European Voice that the EU legislation "would have the greatest impact on American-built jets and equipment, and we feel that this is an unfair, thinly-veiled attempt to close the European market to these US products".

The delay is designed to allow more time for EU-US talks to avert the threat of yet another highly damaging transatlantic trade dispute as the dispute over the EU's banana regime threatens to escalate and fresh talks get underway in Washington in a bid to settle the long-running row over the Union's ban on imports of hormone-treated beef.

A decision to press ahead with the ban was due to be rubberstamped by EU governments at a meeting of social affairs ministers next Tuesday (9 March), and enter into force on 1 April. But the German presidency has given into Washington's demands for a stay of execution after US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urging a delay.

This was the culmination of an unprecedented lobbying campaign by the US administration to defend its powerful aviation industry, with US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater writing to all 15 EU transport ministers and Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky appealing directly to her Union counterparts.

US Under Secretary of Commerce David Aaron will meet senior Commission transport officials in Brussels next week, and Slater will jet in to lobby Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock on 24 March in a last-ditch attempt to settle the dispute.

The EU measure at the centre of the controversy would prevent airlines from registering planes fitted with hush kits or other equipment to reduce engine noise in Europe from next month, and those registered in other countries from flying in the EU from 2002.

The Union claims that aircraft fitted with hush kits do not always comply with international environmental noise regulations, and that planes should instead be fitted with new engines guaranteed to meet the standards laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

But Washington argues that the proposed ban is not justified on scientific grounds since hush kits have been an accepted method for meeting noise limits set by the ICAO for nearly 15 years. The US would be hit hard by the restrictions because leading US aircraft manufacturers make most of these kits and hundreds of American-built planes are equipped with them. It says the move would unfairly discriminate against US-made aircraft and engines, which often are quieter than their European counterparts made by companies such as Airbus Industrie.

The US Congress stepped up its campaign against the proposed ban this week as the House of Representatives endorsed Oberstar's bill, which would prevent Concorde flights from landing at New York's JFK Airport. The bill will now go to the Senate and then for signing by President Bill Clinton. "We have worked closely with the administration in crafting this bill and moving it through the legislative process," said Oberstar. "Therefore, unless conditions change, I am confident that the president will sign the bill."

Concorde has enjoyed a waiver from international noise standards for two decades and Oberstar argues that a ban would reduce noise levels at JFK by 20%. But the move has prompted furious protests from BA and Air France. "It is grossly unfair and wrong to take reprisal action against innocent airlines and their customers because of legislation which is being brought in the EU," said BA spokesman André Clodong.