The General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association (GAMTA) is continuing to champion the cause for the abolition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on professional pilot training courses. Britain, Ireland, Austria and Belgium are the only JAA states which charge VAT on such schools, and GAMTA, claiming to be supported by the findings of the Dunwoody report earlier this year, is seeking parliamentary support to press for change. \rThe British Parliament's Transport Select Committee, headed by Labour MP Gwyneth Dunwoody, submitted a report in June which expressed concerns that the industry's inability to recruit enough pilots and engineers could compromise aviation safety. Graham Forbes, chief executive of GAMTA, told EBAN: "VAT relief would give a kick-start to getting self-sponsored pilots in. We lost vocational training relief 18 months ago. An end to VAT on professional pilot training would be pretty much a one-for-one replacement for this concession, from a commercial if not a legislative point of view. We are taking great comfort from the Gwyneth Dunwoody report."\rForbes reflects that of the European countries that charge VAT, only Britain has significant pilot training facilities. "There is also the competition issue. We are at a 17.5 per cent disadvantage to continental Europe on this issue," he said. GAMTA wrote to the paymaster general, Dawn Primarolo, on the strength of the Transport Select Committee's recommendations that VAT be abolished on pilot training. According to the British Aviation General Bulletin, GAMTA's newsletter, Ms Primarolo replied explaining that "educational and training courses supplied on a commercial basis for profit are taxable" and "reliefs from the tax have been confined, for the most part, to items that figure largely in the everyday expenditure of most people". She therefore felt that no useful purpose would be served by arranging a meeting. GAMTA said it was "astonished by this dismissive reply."\rGAMTA's "plan b" was to seek backbench support in the house of commons, in order to bring the issue to debate. The sole parliamentarian to actively support the issue is John Wilkinson, conservative MP for Ruislip Northwood. \rHis constituency contains Northolt Airfield, a former RAF airbase and the focal point for a strong aviation community in Ruislip. He brought the subject up in the House of Commons, and talked to EBAN about the House's response: "The government is not interested, but we've got to keep pressing. I don't think they are very sympathetic or very favourable to aviation in general," he said. "The issue of VAT was brought up to support our arguments against additional charges upon GAA flight crew licence of aviation. I have to write to the Chancellor on this matter."\rWilkinson's motivation for abetting GAMTA on the VAT issue stems from his time as an RAF and civilian flying instructor, and as sales manager of a business charter company. "Flying was an early part of my life," he told EBAN. "I got my pilot's licence in 1955, and flew until the pressures of politics and lack of funds got the better of me."