AIRBUS SAID READY TO COOPERATE WITH MCDONNELL <MD>
The European Airbus consortium is ready to
cooperate with U.S. Aerospace group McDonnell Douglas Corp on
future aircraft programs, pointing the way to a defusion of the
transatlantic dispute on subsidies to the aircraft industry,
French Transport Ministry Jacques Douffiagues said.
    He told the southern French daily Depeche du Midi in an
interview today that the talks between senior U.S. And European
Community officials in London on October 27 on the Airbus
question should be more harmonious as a result.
  
    Airbus officials said last week that they were continuing
talks on possible collaboration with McDonnell Doughlas on
aircraft projects, including an eventual stretched version of
the Airbus A320 short-haul jet, but that collaboration in the
immediate future was unlikely.
    U.S. Manufacturers and officials have charged that the
French, British and West German governments have disrupted the
world aviation market by unfairly subsidising Airbus, allowing
it to undercut private U.S. Competitors, while the Europeans
have responded by saying that U.S. Manufacturers benefit from
large government-funded military contracts.
    Douffiagus said that transatlantic cooperation was already
widespread in aircraft construction.
  
 Reuter
