§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list he direct and indirect aid programme offered by the Governments of the United Kingdom, United States of America, France, Germany and Japan to their space and aerospace industries; and if he will make a statement on how such programmes will be affected by the recent general agreement on tariffs and trade.
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§ Mr. Charles WardleThe estimated outturn in 1994–95 for the United Kingdom on indirect support for the civil aerospace industry is £21.6 million and direct support is £2 million. The published information on the French budget indicates that in 1994–95 there is funding for indirect supports of around FF400 million and direct support of about FF1500 million. Similarly for Germany, the published information shows indirect supports of about DM100 million and direct support of around DM200 million in 1994–95.
The approved civil aeronautics budget for NASA for 1994 is $1.02 billion; a further $1 billion has been allocated for the provision of aeronautics facilities. This does not include expenditure by other departments with direct or indirect benefits for civil aerospace manufacturers, for which no easily obtainable figure is available. Comparable figures for Japanese aeronautics expenditure are nor readily available.
Civil space expenditure in the current financial year— 1994–95—is as follows:
Country Amount (£ million) United Kingdom 181 France 926 Germany 633 Comparable figures for the United States and Japan are not available.
Commercially published information indicates that the comparison between space expenditure in 1993 is as follows:
Country Amount ($ million) United Kingdom 257 France 2,009 Germany 1,052 United States of America 28,712 Japan 1,896 Source:
"European Space Directory 1994"
It is too early to say how the recent GATT might affect aid programmes in the space and aerospace industries.