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The Canadian company's share of the so-called Flight School XXI contract — to provide helicopter simulators and training to the U.S. Army — would have been worth about $1-billion over 20 years.

Mr. Burney also said CAE is "reserving the right to appeal" the procurement decision that gave the U.S. contract to a rival all-U.S. consortium, saying that the bid by the CAE group — which included U.S. aircraft giant Boeing Co. — was $159-million (U.S.) or 16 per cent less than the posted winning bid.

"That leads me to wonder whether this was an example in which politics trumps trade," he said, with an implicit reference to fears of an anti-Canada backlash after the country's decision not to back the U.S. war in Iraq. "We were up against an all-American team."

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