The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington is conducting a careful review of the block purchases of the Zenit launch vehicle being marketed by the Boeing Sea Launch consortium, SpaceCast was told last week. "We are currently gathering data, both from the Ukraine as well as the companies involved, to make sure they are complying with our (launch service) agreements," Catherine Novelli of the Trade Representatives office said. Sea Launch has sold blocks of the Zenit, Russia's most modern expendable space booster but one built in the Ukraine, for commercial satellite launches beginning in the summer of 1998 from ocean-going platforms. Novelli said the U.S. wanted to assure that the sales of the rocket didn't conflict with minimum pricing provisions of the existing trade agreements. The agreements are designed to make certain launchers sold by former Communist countries aren't "dumped" on the market at prices U.S. firms couldn't compete against.
Novelli also said that with all of the agreements expiring by the year 2000, "We are trying to determine where we go from here" in shaping policies both to assist U.S. aerospace businesses as well as get out of their way, noting that many firms are now selling the foreign launchers they once competed against. "What is our role going to be?", Novelli asked June 4th in a Washington speech. "How much should we intervene- or should we intervene at all?" The future role of the U.S. Trade Representative in shaping space transportation policy and business will be determined by that on-going review, she said.
