Advertisement

Bush Favors FSX Deal, May Seek Changes

Share
Times Staff Writers

President Bush has tentatively decided to go ahead with a controversial U.S. deal with Japan for the joint development of an advanced fighter plane but is likely to demand tougher measures to safeguard American technology and jobs, Administration officials said Thursday.

The project for production of the FSX fighter would mark the first time that the two countries have agreed to cooperate on a major new weapon for Japan and would thrust that nation into a new status as a producer of sophisticated military aircraft.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Houston, where Bush was to deliver a speech, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that the President is still “reviewing documents” on “at least three or four basic issues . . . to be decided on.”

Advertisement

Decisions Pending on Changes

Once Bush makes those decisions, Fitzwater said, “we would be able to announce that we are prepared to go ahead . . . with an agreement” to begin developing the FSX. But, he added, “at this point the decisions have not been made” on how extensive those changes should be.

Fitzwater’s remarks followed a late-evening review of the accord Wednesday by Bush and his top advisers at which Cabinet officers on each side of the FSX issue laid out their concerns in an effort to get the President to resolve their differences.

Bush is expected to consider a new position paper that was being drafted by the National Security Council late Thursday and to announce--possibly as early as today--that in principle he favors going ahead with the joint venture.

However, Administration officials said that before the President formally discusses the pact with the Japanese, he will seek consultations with Congress over what additional assurances the United States should demand to protect American technology and jobs.

The key issue is whether the United States will be able to obtain the changes it wants without upsetting the entire accord. Tokyo has served notice that it regards the current arrangement, which took 18 months to hammer out, as final and that it will not renegotiate it.

U.S. officials said that some new restrictions or assurances can be written into side letters and contracts between the U.S. and Japanese companies that will be working on the project but that others could require redrafting of some basic provisions.

Advertisement

Specifically, the White House is expected to announce that it will ask Japan to guarantee that U.S. firms will be allocated a minimum 40% share of FSX production once the aircraft is developed. The current agreement offers no such promises.

The Administration is expected to approach the Japanese about the proposed changes during and after its consultations with Congress. U.S. officials said they expect the bulk of the issues to be resolved by the end of the month.

The White House also is likely to insist that General Dynamics Corp., the major U.S. participant in the proposed joint venture, cut back sharply on the amount of sophisticated computer software that it allows the Japanese to see.

Both issues have been of concern to Congress and to Bush’s top economic advisers, such as Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher, who led the internal Administration protest against the FSX pact. The accord was negotiated by the State and Defense departments.

Supporters of the accord say it is the best the United States could achieve, given Japanese opposition to the suggestion of some American officials that Tokyo buy F-16s from the United States. They say it will stimulate mutually beneficial transfer of technology and create jobs in U.S. industry.

The Administration faces a relatively tight deadline for deciding the FSX issue. Japan has asked the United States to make up its mind by March 31, the close of the Japanese fiscal year.

Advertisement

Both the Defense and State departments view the project as important to maintaining security ties between the two countries. But the Commerce Department and some congressmen fear that it may help Japan build up its own aircraft industry.

The two sides already have gone a long way toward ironing out their differences. In a month of intense negotiations at the sub-Cabinet level, they have trimmed the amount of sophisticated technology that is to be exchanged between the two countries.

They also have set up procedures for giving the Commerce Department a much larger role in negotiating future projects to help ensure that any new joint venture accord does not threaten the ability of U.S. industry to compete.

“What this fight has done is, it has brought to the fore the whole issue of safeguarding the U.S.’s economic security as well as its military security,” a senior policy-maker said. “From now on, we’ll be giving much more weight to commercial interests--a major change.”

But Bush also must decide such questions as how to ensure that Tokyo will share new technology with the United States later and how much of the plane’s production will be done in the United States.

Under the law, Congress has 30 days after the Administration formally notifies it of the accord to block the deal.

Advertisement
Advertisement