John Byerly
John Byerly at the end of October retired from his post at the U.S. Department of State, where he served for the past decade as deputy assistant secretary for transportation affairs. During his tenure, Byerly oversaw many Open Skies agreements with other nations, serving as the chief U.S. negotiator for the landmark EU-U.S. agreement, the second stage of which was finalized this year, as well as an Open Skies bilateral agreement with Japan, which officially was signed during his last week in office. Byerly last week spoke with The Transnationalabout why he expects more countries to sign Open Skies agreements, why negotiations with the European Union and Japan were among the toughest and what's next on his agenda. Excerpts follow.
How many Open Skies agreements did you personally play a role in negotiating?
There are different ways of counting them. We say right now that we have negotiated Open Skies agreements with 99 countries. There are a couple of agreements-- Japan, up until recently, was one--where it wasn't being applied. We've negotiated and initialed the text of an Open Skies agreement with the Israelis, but it's not being applied and isn't in force. But we have almost 100 agreements. Of those, I guess I can take credit in some sense for the 27 member states of the European Union. I personally negotiated the German and French Open Skies agreements and played a role, but was not there for the finalization of the Italian Open Skies agreement. I didn't do the initial set of agreements--the Netherlands in '92 or the smaller Western European countries that were done in '95. But we pulled those all together [under EU Open Skies]. Also, for many of the agreements there wasn't exactly a negotiating team. They were done by mail. We would exchange through the diplomatic channel. Many countries were prepared to generally just sign up to what we proposed in our Open Skies template, where there wasn't a lot of negotiating room, but we would make adjustments or explain things. I think on my watch, probably of the 99, I played a role in something like 75 of those countries.
Are there any that stick out as particularly difficult to achieve?
Probably getting the two stages of the EU Open Skies agreement--it took years. We started essentially in 2003, negotiated in 2004 and didn’t get there then. Then we negotiated until 2005, but the [U.S. Department of Transportation] rulemaking exercise didn't work out; it was withdrawn. Then we started in 2007 and were able to sign that year. We let that sit for a year, went back to the negotiating table once that agreement came into force in 2008, set the target date of November 2010 for the second stage and completed that ahead of schedule. It was not an easy negotiation, but it was a realistic one. Also, the Japanese negotiations--this is not a country that philosophically in the past, until very recently, has endorsed full liberalization. It was tough negotiating. The first agreement where I led a formal delegation was in Germany in 1996, and that was in many ways a breakout agreement. We had done Open Skies only with somewhat smaller European countries--the Netherlands, Belgium, the Scandinavian countries, Austria, Switzerland, Iceland. At that point, Germany was interested in doing Open Skies, connected to an application by Lufthansa and United for antitrust immunity. With DOT, we put together an approach where we would maintain the integrity of DOT's administrative law proceedings to decide antitrust immunity, but also take into fact that we would both get what we want: We get Open Skies; the Germans get a decision by DOT to their liking. Now, that doesn't mean DOT will deliver that, but they did in that case. So, that was a little touch and go. It was new territory back in '96, and that was the first one I had done. We did some other agreements that weren't Open Skies, but we built a relationship in steps over the years with the Russians. I've done those negotiations for a number of years, and it's met our carriers' needs. We've really expanded the number of flights, in particular the number of overflight opportunities, which is important with cross-polar routes and our expanding service to Asian points. I look back on that as a real positive for our overall aviation interests--to have a good relationship with Russia. A lot of countries in Europe have had lots of problems, and we've basically been able to work through problems cooperatively with Russia.
Which nations were on the agenda for Open Skies when you left?
We've been having negotiations with China, where we have a commitment from 2007 to achieve full liberalization--which for us means Open Skies. Those will be tough talks. There are a lot of infrastructure constraints, slot constraints, airspace issues with the Chinese. It's not going to be easy, but that's a huge market and someplace where we'd like to liberalize. Then Brazil, which maybe offers opportunities in the nearer term. We have talks scheduled for a little later this year with the Brazilians. We'll see if those go well. We're also going to be having talks with the Colombians, which is a huge market. Then there are other countries around the world where my successors will be engaging.
Are there any nations with which the United States has diplomatic relations but you don't see the possibility of Open Skies?
Never say never. Where we've seen resistance to Open Skies, to liberalization, is with countries where the carriers, which often are national flag carriers, are facing severe problems--financial problems, competitive problems. Countries often wish to protect their airlines while they get their act together. Sometimes, though, it's hard to protect yourself into competitiveness. The Japanese realize that it's best to move ahead and get with the rest of the world, get with the competitive market rather than try to protect. Remember, the French denounced our old agreement from the '40s, and we had no agreement for a number of years in the 1990s, but we were able to patch something together in '98, then build that back again with further agreements and ultimately got Open Skies in 2001, 2002. I would never say never to any of these countries. Brazil is similar: We pushed for many years, but their airlines were in a freefall for a while. Of course, the landscape is very different now--no Varig, no TransBrasil, no VASP. Mexico is another huge market where we don't have Open Skies. First, they're going to have to get their safety oversightup to [International Civil Aviation Organization] standards, and they're making progress. When they do that, maybe we can look forward and do liberalization.
What's next on your agenda?
Retirement. That's what the State Department calls it when you've done 30-plus years and you're old enough. They give you a small pension and send you on your way. I could have stayed on, but I've been in this job 10 years in January. I wanted to have a little more family time. I decided this was a good time--right in the middle of an administration when there's not a political transition going on. Also, we just finished the second-stage EU talks and signed that in June, and I was just in Tokyo on Oct. 25 and our ambassador and the Japanese transport minister signed the U.S.-Japan Open Skies agreement, which was sort of a miracle of an agreement. No one, including me, thought that was going to happen any time soon, but the commercial reality is airlines want to position themselves for a global future. That includes the Japanese airlines, particularly ANA, which wanted antitrust immunity with United. That's really what set the stage for negotiations, which were tough. That was a neat way to go out: My last week in the office, we signed Japan Open Skies.