Europe's Airbus

It was good to read that Salt Lake Chamber leaders offer strategies for bringing 150,000 new jobs to Utah this year ("Where the jobs will be in '11," 1/12). And kudos to Governor Herbert and his economic team for their making economic development a top priority for our State. But our economic recovery will also depend on what happens in Washington, D.C., where Congress must fix our broken trade policies.

One place for Congress to start is in the curious case of the $35 billion Air Force tanker competition. Europe's Airbus is bidding a tanker that was built with $5 billion of illegal government subsidies, underhandedly attempting to capture the more than 50,000 jobs the contract could support, including nearly 500 in Utah. This has happened in the past as Airbus has claimed 65,000 American jobs using $178 billion of government subsidies over the years. Their friends in Europe's capitals also protect them from competition by blocking U.S. companies for their defense contracts.

Congress should direct the Pentagon to ensure that Airbus disgorges itself of its illegal subsidies in the tanker competition. They're perfectly in the right to do so as the World Trade Organization ruled the Airbus subsidies illegal earlier this year. They've got more than 50,000 reasons to get this done right.

Donald Dunn

Salt Lake City