DAVOS, Switzerland — Boeing Co. chairman and CEO Phil Condit defended his plans to transform the world's largest aerospace company into more of a global operation — even if it means jobs lost at home.
Avoiding a trade war over rival Airbus Industrie's superjumbo passenger jet project is also a top priority for Boeing, Condit said in an interview with the Associated Press at the World Economic Forum
Seattle-based Boeing's long-term plan is to move from "a U.S. company selling to the world" into a global operation "doing business in many different countries," he said. The goal is improved access to markets in other countries, both commercial and military.
Through diversification at home and abroad, Condit said, Boeing can avoid serious financial bruises regardless of whether the U.S. economy's landing in 2001 is soft or hard.
Income from such services as converting or overhauling old planes for new uses have become increasingly important to Boeing, accounting for a quarter of Boeing's revenue in military aircraft.
"If people are not buying new airplanes, old airplanes still need to be serviced," he said. President Bush's pledge to increase military spending will also help Boeing ride out any slowdown in commercial orders, Condit said.
Condit confirmed reports earlier this week that Boeing is considering producing the wings for its own superjumbo in Japan rather than Washington state.
Those ambitions have already produced tensions with Boeing's largest union, representing 24,000 U.S. workers.
Even though Boeing's plan for a superjumbo jet has yet to move off the drawing board or win a single order, union officials this month pledged a hard battle.
"The union will fight against this move with all its strength and all its resources," one leader, Bill Johnson, told a news conference in Seattle.
Condit said Boeing has promised the unions that it will offer education and training programs for workers who lose their jobs. In the long run, he said, expanding overseas "means more jobs because we think it means it expands our market," he insisted.
The 747X superjumbo project, a stretched version of Boeing's cash cow 747, would compete with the A380 being developed by rival Airbus Industries, the European aerospace consortium.
But while Airbus gave the go-ahead this month to begin building the 555-seat aircraft, Boeing is still considering whether it will produce the 747X.
Condit said he is still convinced that the future of commercial aviation calls for more long-range 200- to 300-seat passenger jets like the 777, better suited for flying point to point between smaller cities.
But after years of playing down the market for a superjumbo, Condit conceded that "there is a future" for the A380, although he insisted it would be "limited."
Airbus has 50 firm orders and 42 options for the A380, including from previously loyal Boeing buyers Qantas Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
The A380 is also causing political tensions between the United States and the European Union countries behind Airbus: Germany, France, Britain and Spain.
When EU leaders visited Washington last month, then-President Bill Clinton issued an unusual public warning over financing of the A380 project. The United States believes that the $2.5 billion in long-term loans EU governments are providing to Airbus may violate World Trade Organization rules.
EU and Airbus officials deny that the proposed financing will constitute an illegal subsidy. A 1992 U.S.-EU agreement stipulates European governments can provide refundable backing for up to one-third of the non-recurring costs of the superjumbo project.
The European Commission also hints that it has evidence NASA indirectly subsidizes Boeing's commercial arm — charges Condit denied.
Talks at the governmental level in Washington this month to resolve the dispute made little headway, negotiators said. No date was set for them to resume.
Condit said it was important that they succeed.
"I think one of the things that's very important is that there not be a trade war," he said.
Free trade is essential to improving living standards around the world, Condit said, rejecting arguments from anti-globalization protesters who sought to disrupt the annual meeting of business and government leaders Saturday.
He said his company seeks to promote change by example in its operations in countries like China.
"We are not governments," he said. "We cannot go say, 'Here's how you have to do something.' But we can behave with a set of values that are very much down the lines of what a lot of the people out there talk about."