WaPo | “Three of the airlines that have been targeted for these measures — Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways — have long been accused by their U.S. competitors of receiving massive effective subsidies from their governments,” wrote political scientists Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman. “These airlines have been quietly worried for months that President Trump was going to retaliate. This may be the retaliation.”
Farrell
and Newman suggested Tuesday’s order is an example of the Trump
administration “weaponizing interdependence” — using its leverage in a
world where American airports are key “nodes” in global air travel to
weaken competitors. My colleague Max Bearak detailed how this could be a part of Trump’s wider protectionist agenda. In February, President Trump met with executives of U.S. airlines and pledged that he would help them compete against foreign carriers that receive subsidies from their home governments.
“A lot of that competition is subsidized by governments, big league,” said
Trump at that meeting. “I’ve heard that complaint from different people
in this room. Probably about one hour after I got elected, I was
inundated with calls from your industry and many other industries,
because it’s a very unfair situation.”
