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"Trade dispute prompts political crisis" reads the headline in Le Figaro. The French daily reports on the diplomatic quarrel between France and the United States that has emerged two days after EADS, the parent company of Airbus, and its American partner Northrop Grumman withdrew their bid for a 36 billion euro contract to supply the US Air Force with aerial refuelling tankers. In 2008, the Pentagon opted to award the contract to EADS. However, this decision has now been cancelled and the European consortium insists that the terms of a revised call for tenders have been skewed to favour Boeing. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to discuss the issue with Barack Obamawhen he visits Washington later this month. The decision to rearrange the call for tenders has been roundly criticised by a number of French MPs and the European Commission as "protectionist" and "deliberately tailored" to accommodate the American aircraft manufacturer. That's an opinion shared by The Wall Street Journal, which notes that"after this debacle", every bidder will know that rules guaranteeing free and fair competition for US military contracts "can be violated with enough political pressure."
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