P.M. BRIEFING : European Firms Rap U.S., Seek More Japanese Aircraft Orders

European manufacturers today demanded a fairer share of the Japanese aerospace market, charging that U.S. firms are using political pressure to win a disproportionate number of orders.

“Europe accounts for about 30% of the turnover of the world’s aerospace industry, but its share of the import market in Japan is only about 11%,” members of the Aeronautics and Space Committee of the European Business Community in Japan said in a statement.

The members said that in competition with Boeing 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft, European A300, 310 and 330 Airbuses held, as of August this year, a 61% share of the world market but only 26% in Japan, the lowest of any market in the world.

As of August, 1990, U.S. manufacturers had won 89% of planes with more than 100 seats in use or on order by Japanese airlines, against only 11% for the Airbus, and 98% of orders for wide-bodied aircraft, it said.

The reasons for the high U.S. share were political pressure on Japan to reduce its huge trade surplus, historical obligations and a security treaty that obliged Japan to buy military goods from the United States, it said.