The Hill: How Trump can put America first in the international airline industry
President Trump’s recent executive action calling for a federal investigation into foreign steel arriving into the United States is the kind of decisive action needed to ensure that American jobs and our robust economy are not at risk or being taken advantage of by our trade partners. We need the same action from President Trump to address an analogous problem in international aviation.
America’s all-important airline industry faces tremendous risk. Airline seat dumping is currently being practiced by three Gulf airlines: Emirates and Etihad of the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar Airways of the State of Qatar. These airlines are able to pursue such predatory practices because they receive massive, illegal subsidies from their governments. Indeed, in the past decade alone, they have received more than $50 billion from their government owners in direct violation of the aviation trade agreements held between the United States and the UAE and Qatar.