House Votes for Limits on FSX Deal With Japan

The House voted Wednesday to attach some restrictions to the U.S. agreement with Japan for joint U.S.-Japanese development of that country’s proposed FSX advanced fighter aircraft--risking a possible veto and a serious confrontation with the White House.

The resolution, passed on a vote of 241 to 168, is identical to one that the Senate passed last month. While approving the FSX deal in principle, it would prohibit the United States from providing Tokyo with the technology for building the engine for the new plane.

It also would put Congress formally on record as insisting that U.S. firms be awarded “at least 40%” of any contracts if the fighter ever actually goes into production. The new aircraft would be patterned after the American-made F-16.

Tougher Changes Rejected

Senate passage of the measure last month initially was regarded as a victory for the Administration. The Senate last month and the House on Wednesday both rejected tougher amendments that would have rejected the entire accord. The measure now goes to President Bush.

But the White House has said since the Senate vote that Bush regards the language as too restrictive and an intrusion on presidential negotiating authority and has warned that he is likely to veto the resolution in the form that it has been passed by Congress.

At the same time, the key votes on the restrictive language suggest that opponents of the FSX deal in both houses may now be able to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto, thus forcing Bush to live with the language.

It was not immediately clear whether the Administration would decide to go ahead with the FSX project if Congress were to override a presidential veto, or whether Bush ultimately would feel forced to ask Japan to renegotiate the arrangement to take account of Congress’ desires.

Administration officials said they would have to study the language more carefully.

White House advisers have been warning that Japan may refuse to continue with the project if it requires that the deal be renegotiated. Tokyo initially wanted to build the fighter entirely on its own and acceded to co-development only after strong U.S. pressure.

Wednesday’s vote in the House came amid a torrent of anti-Japanese rhetoric by lawmakers of both parties, who argued that Japan should have bought the U.S.-made F-16 instead to help reduce the U.S. trade deficit.

Depriving U.S. Firms

But Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) warned that forcing the Administration to ask Japan to renegotiate the FSX accord would only prompt Japan to go to European aircraft makers instead, thus depriving U.S. firms of some $2.3 billion in likely contracts.

U.S. aircraft makers have said the American firms participating in the FSX project were likely to earn almost as much from co-development of the project as they would if Japan had bought the F-16. Development costs for a fighter far outweigh production costs.

The key vote in the House on Wednesday came as the lawmakers endorsed, 252 to 155, an amendment proposed by Rep. Terry L. Bruce (D-Ill.) that added the restrictions to the resolution. The Senate vote on a similar amendment was 72 to 25.

Earlier, the House approved, 320 to 98, a measure by Rep. Gerald B. H. Solomon (R-N.Y.) that would have blocked the FSX accord entirely. However, that resolution was discarded when the Bruce provision was approved.

The Bruce provision--and an identical amendment proposed in the Senate by former Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)--were intended as compromises. Opponents of the FSX deal had conceded in advance they did not have the votes to block the accord completely.

The FSX arrangement has become a focal point for a major debate over U.S. trade and economic relations with Japan--specifically, whether the United States was “giving away” valuable commercial secrets in the deal that Japan could later exploit.

Sophisticated Technology

Opponents, both within the Administration and in Congress, charged that the accord would give Japan sophisticated technology that it later could use to build a civilian aircraft industry that would topple the United States as the leader in the field.

But Defense Department officials--as well as executives of several U.S. civilian aircraft manufacturing companies--said the technology involved in the FSX was primarily military and would not be transferable to civilian aviation.

The accord was negotiated over 18 months by the outgoing Reagan Administration. The Bush Administration had been expected to accept it intact, but wound up renegotiating the deal once after Congress and the Commerce Department raised concerns about commercial issues.