Europe anger over end of US air force tender bid

BRUSSELS — Europe cried foul on Tuesday over Pentagon contract rules it said favoured US plane-makers, after European consortium EADS threw in the towel on a mammoth US defence tender.American giant Boeing is now poised to win the 35-billion-dollar (26-billion-euro) deal to supply US air force refuelling tanker jets, after rival partners Northrop Grumman and EADS dropped out of the race.But after the companies cited skewed bidding rules, provoking widespread European Union anger, the prospect of a new battle pitting the EU against the US at the World Trade Organization cannot be ruled out.In Brussels, a carefully-worded statement from EU trade chiefs -- who would lead the European case before WTO adjudicators -- queried the terms of the published tender document.The WTO is already examining tit-for-tat disputes between the US and the EU over subsidies or state aid to Boeing and Airbus, legal battles which are expected to rage for years.In Berlin, a German government minister accused the United States of "protectionism" and said he would "take up the affair on a political level, and also at the level of the WTO."A French foreign ministry spokesman also warned that Paris will study closely the "possible implications" of the dispute.Northrop Grumman and EADS charged that the requirements for the KC-X programme -- to replace a 1950s-era Boeing fleet -- were unfairly weighted in favour of their US rival.While a European Commission spokesman declined to answer whether a WTO complaint would be forthcoming, a statement said the EU "would be extremely concerned if it were to emerge that the terms of tender were such as to inhibit open competition for the contract."The commission "will be following further developments in this case very closely," it warned.Brussels argued that the US defence trade balance with the EU has traditionally been "significantly in the US' favour," citing 2008 figures showing five billion dollars of US defence exports against only 2.2 billion dollars' worth of imports.It did not give figur

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