Neal Dunn: “recently, the European Union objected to the merger of McDonnell Douglas and the Boeing Co. I find this decision…”

“recently, the European Union objected to the merger of McDonnell Douglas and the Boeing Co. I find this decision extremely troubling and rise in strong support of House Resolution 191 as introduced by my colleague from Washington State, Mr. Metcalf. These two wholly owned American companies should be allowed to merge without fear of reprisal from a foreign government. The sole reason for the European Union criticism and imminent disapproval of the merger is to gain an unfair competitive advantage for Airbus, a government-owned aircraft manufacturer. It is ridiculous to allow a foreign government to block this merger because they cannot compete with our workers in a fair market. European Union's opposition to this merger is unacceptable for several reasons. First, there are sovereignty concerns about foreign intervention in an American merger. Second, the parties involved are both wholly owned U.S. companies with an international customer base. Third, this merger between two U.S. companies has already been approved by our Government. Fourth, the objections raised by the European Union regarding the abandonment of exclusive contracts awarded to Boeing is inappropriate. The Boeing Co. should not be punished because it obtains more contracts than Airbus Industries in a competitive market. Airbus has never objected to carrier requests to make the contracts exclusive in return for reduced prices.”