WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 14, 2018) – Today, Peter Navarro, assistant to the president, told members of the aviation industry that the UAE has committed to a freeze on fifth freedom routes to the United States. Navarro repeatedly indicated that Trump officials disagreed with UAE Ambassador Al Otaiba’s characterization of his nation’s commitments to the United States, calling Otaiba’s comments “disconcerting” and saying that his comments “seemed to undermine the intent of the letter.”

“There will be no additional routes into the United States until further notice,” said Navarro. “That’s a promise that will be kept.”

Navarro also told representatives from FedEx and the U.S. Travel Association that the freeze on fifth freedom routes by the UAE applied only to passenger airlines and not to cargo.

Below is a readout of the State Department briefing with Assistant Secretary of State Manisha Singh and Assistant to the President Peter Navarro:

Peter Navarro: Were there any further discussions with the signator [sic] on the other side, he made some comments to the press that seemed to undermine the intent of the letter?

Manisha Singh: Yeah, we at the State Department are very firm that the letter represents our – the intent on fifth freedoms. And we’re sticking to that point of view.

Peter Navarro: I think this is a good job done at this point in time. We’ve committed the Emiratis to transparency, better financial reporting, an acknowledgement that subsidies harm competition and all that. It was disconcerting to me to have them issue a statement that basically disowned the side letter. And I guess what I would say to everybody who has an interest in this and wants to keep the peace on this, that it’s important for the industry to make it clear in their public pronouncement that – as will the White House and presumably State – that we have a clear understanding from what has transpired that there will be no additional routes into the United States until further notice. And the expectation is that that’s a promise that will be kept. And certainly won’t be violated until such time as we see things like what happens after the end of the first year and further discussions.

Tori Barnes: And Manisha, this is Tori Barnes with U.S. Travel. Again, thank you very much. We appreciate all the hard work as well that went into this. Just because we didn’t see any language on the differentiation between cargo and passenger rights on fifth freedoms, just wanted to regroup real quickly on that point and understand that there are no freezes or changes to the rights provided under the agreement? Just wanted to clarify and make sure that is in fact an accurate assessment.

Manisha Singh: Your rights under the agreement do not change. That is correct.

Tori Barnes: Thank you.

Manisha Singh: Any more questions or comments? OK well Peter, do you have more thoughts you want to share with the group?

Peter Navarro: Just to reiterate what I said earlier. For the stability of this agreement, it is important that the industry lay down the marker of what the expectations are, as will the White House and State so that at this point in time there’s clarity what will happen moving forward. What we expect moving forward is transparency, full accounting, stopping of subsides and a freeze on routes until further notice. So, there it is. And that’s strictly on the passenger side.

Tori Barnes: I just wanted to ask because I think we just talked about there not being a freeze. So I just wanted to clarify before we end the call that there’s actually not a freeze but that we still remain – that our rights are still there?

Peter Navarro: Who is saying this?

Tori Barnes: It’s Tori Barnes at U.S. Travel.

Peter Navarro: The U.S. has the rights with the Qataris and the Emiratis over two separate agreements, they agreed to basically not schedule any more routes until further notice. You can call that a freeze. That’s a freeze to me. If you don’t want to use the language, that’s fine. But this only affects them.

Tori Barnes: OK so there is a difference between passenger and cargo then regarding –?

Peter Navarro: Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. We have your back. We stick together on this and speak with one voice and that’ll make an agreement with fairness and competition like we want. Over and out here.