Memorandum from Finmeccanica UK
1. The US-UK Defence Trade Treaty has its
roots in the initiative after the 2003 Iraq war to ensure that
US and UK armed forces could share capabilities through equipment
and technical transfer so as to make them more effective when
operating together in combat. The Finmeccanica UK Group of companies
is an important part of the domestic defence manufacturing community
that provides the UK's armed forces with their combat capability.
This is reflected by all Finmeccanica sites' List X accreditation.
It would not be in the spirit of the Treaty, and would be irrational,
to exclude from the Implementation Arrangements companies in the
UK's domestic defence capability landscape simply because of third-country
ownership. This is exemplified by Finmeccanica's sales in the
UK of £1.7 billion exclusively in support of the UK's armed
forces and those of allies. Finmeccanica could not accept, given
its place in major UK equipment programmes such as Typhoon, Tornado,
Merlin and Apache, that we might be treated as some special case,
amounting to being labelled as a second class citizen.
2. Finmeccanica has also underwritten with
the UK MOD Special Security Arrangements to support national security
interests by guaranteeing continuity and security of supply.
3. From a business perspective, Finmeccanica
has made significant inward investment decisions based on the
principle that, because of our position in key UK domestic programmes,
we would be afforded the same treatment as other companies in
this community, regardless of ownership. It was on this basis
that Finmeccanica has invested £1.5 billion in high technology
facilities in the UK and maintains a high-skill workforce of some
9,000 or 12,000 if our interest in MBDA is included. The creation
of a two-tier industrial landscape would undermine the rationale
for this very significant investment and high level of activity.
4. For the above reasons, it is not only
within the spirit of the original intent, but essential for practical,
political and industrial terms that Finmeccanica's aspirations
in the UK be included in the scope of the Treaty arrangements.
30 November 2007
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