Airbus joins aviation tax row
GLOBAL planemaker Airbus joined a chorus of concern that a European scheme to charge airlines for carbon emissions risks triggering a full-blown trade war, with implications for plane deals and even Europe’s crippling sovereign debt crisis.
The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), introduced on 1 January, has drawn howls of protest from airlines around the world, with China banning its carriers from taking part.
The escalating row comes on the eve of a China-EU summit in Beijing, with the EU looking to China to dip into its huge foreign exchange reserves to help the Eurozone tackle a debt build-up that threatens its economic stability.
Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said he was increasingly concerned at the potential fall-out if tensions are not defused.
“I am very worried about the consequences of that. What started out as a solution for the environment has become a source of potential trade conflict and that should be a worry for all of us,” he told an aviation conference yesterday ahead of the Singapore Airshow.
China is a strategic market for the world’s two big planemakers, as it coordinates purchases centrally and regularly places orders with Airbus and Boeing in batches of 100 or more to coincide with high-level political contacts.
Foreign governments argue Brussels is exceeding its legal jurisdiction by calculating the carbon cost over the whole flight, not just Europe.