EADS plans to name U.S. factory site today

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The parent company of Airbus is set to announce today its choice among four states in a very public contest for a plant to make aircraft for the U.S. military, even as an international trade dispute threatens the deal.

It’s not unusual for states to compete for industrial trophies, but the contest among four Southeastern states for the $600 million plant proposed by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. has been unusually public. Officials have toured the sites, meeting with local officials and media at every stop to discuss the plant, which would potentially create 1,000 jobs if the company gets part of a military contract to manufacture KC-330 tankers.

“You’re bringing in a whole bunch of top-level jobs. It was our opinion we did not want it to appear as if we cut some deal,” David Oliver Jr., chief executive officer for EADS North American Defense, said during a recent visit to a proposed site near Charleston International Airport.

The search has given EADS some much-needed positive spin at a time when the U.S. and the European Union are engaged in a trade battle over the EU’s subsidies to Airbus, which the U.S. claims gives it an unfair advantage over its chief rival, The Boeing Co.

EADS hopes to get a substantial portion of an expected $9 billion in new spending for military tanker planes, but congressional leaders are trying to tie the subsidy debate to the contract decision.

EADS North America plans to announce today where it will build an engineering center providing about 200 jobs. If it wins the tanker contract, the tanker manufacturing plant would be built at the same location. A field of 70 sites in 32 states was narrowed to sites in North Charleston; Melbourne, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; and Kiln, Miss.