From enforcing border security and foreign policy to protecting American jobs, Donald Trump is the “Get-Things-Done” President.

Since taking office just sixteen months ago, President Trump has moved at a breakneck pace to enact reforms after reforms that streamline our economy, lower taxes, secure our borders, enforce our trade agreements and reassert America’s strength as the world’s leader advancing liberty.

In the waning days of the Obama presidency, careerists at the State Department put American interests and allies in danger with Obama’s ill-conceived Iran Deal. At the time, Americans were told that the agreement would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Assisting with crafting that narrative was White House staffer Ben Rhodes, a self-proclaimed storyteller, whose entire job appears to have been spinning good yarns to accompany reckless foreign policy initiatives.

In reality, and as predicted by experienced foreign policy experts like National Security Advisor John Bolton, William Tobey of Harvard University and General William G. Boykin, the Iran Deal wasn’t even a speed-bump in Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. Iran continued its nuclear program unabated, while the United States lifted $150 billion in sanctions, along with delivering a $1.7 billion pallet of cash to the Mullahs.

On May 8, 2018, President Trump announced that the United States had officially withdrawn from the Iran Deal, and would instead pursue the reinstatement of sanctions, along with a recommitment to working with our allies to develop a “…a real, comprehensive, and lasting solution…” to the threat of a nuclear Iran.

President Trump recognizes that the very same allies we need to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power have been watching the United States to see if we would honor our commitment to Israel. Time and time again, U.S. presidents have promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Israeli people have seen Republican and Democratic presidents come and go, while the embassy remained in Tel Aviv. But all of that has changed with Trump.

Just last week, President Trump fulfilled that promise, with the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.  The move righted an old wrong, recognizing that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel — something Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama had promised to do but failed to execute.

Beyond foreign policy, President Trump has enacted an aggressive America First economic agenda at both home and abroad. The end of 2017 saw the passage of a historic tax reform package. Trump became the first president since Ronald Reagan to accomplish such an extensive overhaul of the tax code. Almost immediately, we saw American workers and taxpayers benefiting from the reform through bonuses and increased wages.

At the international level, President Trump has put American workers first and sought to seriously enforce our trade agreements. The White House has entered into talks with Canada and Mexico about updating NAFTA for the 21st century and making sure that our neighbors to the north and south are upholding their end of the bargain.

Just a few months into 2018, President Trump scored a major win for American airline jobs by resolving two ongoing trade disputes with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. These two Gulf nations have engaged in illegal subsidization of their national airlines, undermining our Open Skies agreements, and putting American jobs at risk.

White House trade advisor Peter Navarro notes in the Washington Examiner that “…the subsidy-enabled dumping of airline capacity by the Gulf carriers into the U.S. market has nearly eliminated U.S. airline service to the Middle East and India.” And that “every long-haul route forgone by U.S. carriers, more than 1,500 American jobs are lost, they estimate. The result of this unfair competition, these U.S. airlines allege, is that Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways have become among the fastest growing carriers in the world. The UAE’s Dubai airport is now one of the world’s busiest.”

Writing in that same op-ed, Navarro argues that President Trump’s enforcement of the Open Skies agreements is just another example of Trump’s commitment to keeping his campaign promises. Navarro is absolutely correct. President Trump is keeping his word by putting America first.

Isn’t it about time we had a president whose entire agenda puts America — and Americans — first?

Jenny Beth Martin is chairman of Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.

Published on The Daily Caller.

President Donald Trump can celebrate another victory for his America First agenda. On Monday, the United Arab Emirates came to terms with the United States, agreeing to uphold the Open Skies agreement between the two nations. For several decades, now, the UAE and Qatar have poured subsidies into their national airlines in an effort to corner the international air travel market. The heavy subsidization has allowed the two Gulf states to engage in capacity dumping – similar to product dumping. Qatar has already come to terms with the United States and has agreed to end their subsidization of Qatar Airways, now the UAE has made the same guarantee regarding Etihad and Emirates.

Enforcing our trade agreements has been a cornerstone of the Trump Administration – and was a key campaign promise that resulted in the President’s 2016 triumph. Across our nation, from Nevada to my home state of Ohio, Americans – especially those who work or have worked in heavy-industry, manufacturing, and industrial labor jobs – have seen the toll exacted on our economy because of our refusal to assert American interests and equitably enforce our trade agreements. With President Trump, that has changed.

Undeterred by “convention”, President Trump has reasserted America’s economic position in international trade. This can be seen from the intense renegotiation of NAFTA terms, to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to our Open Skies agreements. Former-CBO director and President of the American Action Forum, Douglas Holtz Eakin hit-the-nail-on-the-head when he tweeted that President Trump’s deal with the UAE on the Open Skies agreement was a win because “Enforcing our trade agreements is just as important as negotiating them…” and the UAE “(1) admits subsidies are harmful to competition, (2) will use commercial, arms-length prices, (3) will meet int’l standards of financial transparency, and (4) will freeze loss-leader int’l flights.”

Like on so many other issues, the Obama administration did nothing as American companies and workers, and elected officials on both sides of the aisle, raised concerns about these two nations violating the existing agreements. After years of inaction, Trump and his team acted decisively and worked quickly to ensure enforcement of our deals and the protection of our industries.

Effectively, ours and the UAE’s renewed commitment to Open Skies will ensure that the United States will be aware of any new financial involvement between Etihad and Emirates – allowing us to continue to effectively enforce the agreement. Additionally, the UAE will freeze any new “fifth freedom” routes, preventing capacity dumping, subject themselves to international accounting standards, and require their national airlines to pay for their operation costs out of the UAE’s international airports.

Even more impactful, a major portion of our economy and potentially millions of American jobs are reliant on our nation’s airline industry. By ensuring our foreign competitors are playing by the same rules that we are bound by, we’re guaranteeing that the American spirit of innovation, hard work, and know-how has the best shot to win out as it has time and time again – when the playing field isn’t titled against us. This is what the other side won’t admit. Critics of the administration have fallen back on name calling and spreading fake news about the public-and-open bipartisan coalition standing behind the President. When your critics resort to politics as usual, that is when you know you are winning and doing the right thing for the American people – and not the DC Swamp.

His critics and the news media might not want you to hear it, but President Trump is accomplishing much – especially on ensuring our trade deals are enforced and that all parties abide by the terms of our international agreements. The strength America has shown on trade and diplomacy have and will continue to bear fruit, from our Open Skies agreements to de-nuclearizing North Korea, to updating NAFTA for the internet age. President Trump continues to prove himself as the man for the American people at home and abroad.

Published on Town Hall.

By: Douglas Holtz-Eakin

Yesterday, the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed an agreement regarding the future of their Open Skies agreement, a deal that follows on the heels of a similar agreement reached with Qatar a few months back. Open Skies agreements are trade agreements in the form of bilateral treaties that permit cross-border competition in commercial aviation. The United States has over 120 Open Skies agreements, and all but two have been enormous successes.

The new agreement with the UAE addressed a substantive problem: UAE subsidies to state-owned airlines that were forcing competitors out of the market. The subsidies are in violation of Open Skies’ Fair Competition clause — in which all airlines are allowed a “fair and equal” opportunity to compete — and forced U.S. airlines to terminate their competing routes to Gulf nations. Without enforcement, UAE-owned airlines would continue benefitting from these subsidies and driving U.S. competitors out of the market.

By re-negotiating these Open Skies agreements, the Trump Administration has used its trade-enforcement tools to bring the Open Skies agreements back to their original intent. As Eakinomics noted earlier, this willingness to enforce trade agreements will be an essential part of restoring the public’s faith in negotiating future trade agreements.

The UAE agreement is a significant accomplishment. The UAE had resisted attempts to start discussions for three years. The Trump State Department not only got the UAE to the negotiating table, but also achieved several significant steps forward. The UAE acknowledged for the first time the existence of subsidies and the fact that government subsidies undermine healthy market competition. Accordingly, it agreed to conduct all transactions with their airlines at commercial, arms-length prices — no more cushy deals that implicitly are subsidies.

To further display its commitment to a level playing field, the UAE agreed to financial transparency — using internationally accepted standards for accounting and financial statements. Thus, outside groups (e.g., the U.S. carriers) will have the ability to monitor the UAE’s compliance with this agreement. That monitoring is an important part of the work going forward. After all, the UAE did not comply with its original Open Skies agreement; nobody should simply assume that they will comply with this one.

Finally, the UAE agreed that its airlines should not introduce any new “Fifth Freedom” flights — routes on which U.S. customers can travel to, e.g., Europe without actually setting foot in the UAE. The subsidies had driven U.S. carriers off these routes and cut back on the feeder flights from domestic places to cities with international flights. Competition will be improved across both the domestic and international networks.

The agreement is important for commercial aviation in the United States. But it may be just as important as a model for successfully enforcing trade agreements more broadly.

Published on American Action Forum.

In what appears to be a divergence from the terms of the US and United Arab Emirates (UAE) new Open Skies side agreement, a top White House official told industry stakeholders that there is a freeze on adding routes to the US.

Peter Navarro, assistant to US President Donald Trump and director of the White House Trade Council, told aviation industry stakeholders during a briefing May 14 that the UAE had committed to a freeze on fifth freedom routes to the US as part of their agreement to continue the two governments’ Open Skies pact, signed in 2002.

“There will be no additional routes into the United States until further notice,” Navarro said. “That’s a promise that will be kept.” But he added the freeze applied only to passenger airlines, not cargo carriers. FedEx operates fifth freedom rights via Dubai, while Dubai-based Emirates Airline operates two fifth freedom routes, from Italy and Greece, to the US. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways does not operate any such routes.

Navarro’s statements, however, do not sync with UAE government statements, which say the Open Skies agreement remains fully intact. Nor do they fit with the side document recording main points agreed—known as the Record of Discussion—which makes no mention of route freezes or fifth freedom restrictions.

Tori Barnes of the US Travel Association, who attended the White House briefing, asked for clarification about fifth freedoms, route freezes and changes to the Open Skies agreement rights, saying the association did not see any changes in the side document. US State Department assistant secretary Manisha Singh replied, “Your rights under the agreement do not change. That is correct.”

But Navarro then added, “What we expect moving forward is transparency, full accounting, stopping of subsidies and a freeze on routes until further notice. So, there it is. And that’s strictly on the passenger side.”

When Barnes asked for further clarification, Navarro replied, “The US 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.”

Washington DC-based lobbying organization, the Partnership for Fair & Open Skies, which was hired by those US airlines that wanted to restrict the ability of the major Gulf carriers to expand their US networks, issued a release touting Navarro’s statements as proof that the UAE airlines’ routes have been frozen.

“The UAE has committed to a freeze on fifth freedom routes to the United States,” the Partnership said. “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.”

The White House did not respond to an ATW request for clarification on the governments’ differing interpretations.

The US and UAE governments announced the agreement May 14, with the UAE posting the Record of Discussion. Much of the document is a diplomatic affirmation of the importance of the two government’s economic and security ties and an acknowledgement of the mutual benefits of Open Skies.

The document does not change the US-UAE Open Skies agreement in any way; the State Department also said that all the rights and provisions of the original Open Skies agreement “remain in force.”

Campaigns over three years by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, supported by unions such as the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) and Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), are believed to have cost them some $50 million as they lobbied to prove that Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways were heavily subsidized by their governments and therefore were contravening the Open Skies agreements with the UAE and Qatar. The US allegations were not proven, but led to government talks that resulted in the Open Skies side agreements with both the UAE and Qatar.

An agreement was reached with the Qatar government in January.

Published on ATW Online.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and United Arab Emirates signed a deal on Friday to resolve U.S. claims that Gulf carriers have received unfair government subsidies, sources briefed on the matter said.

The voluntary agreement, which applies to Etihad and Emirates airline and is expected to be announced next week, is similar to a deal announced in January between the United States and Qatar in which Qatar agreed to release detailed financial information about state-owned Qatar Airways. Since 2015 the largest U.S. carriers have urged the U.S. government to challenge the conduct of the three major Middle Eastern carriers under “Open Skies” agreements. The U.S. airlines contend the Gulf carriers are being unfairly subsidized by their governments with more than $50 billion in subsidies over the last decade.

Published on Reuters.

President Donald Trump’s State Department will reportedly announce a new trade agreement with United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday, scoring a victory in a trade dispute over UAE’s subsidizing its two state-owned airlines to the detriment of U.S. airlines and workers.

Breitbart News reported how several foreign nations – including the UAE – have been subsidizing their nation’s state-owned airlines to the tune of $52 billion, in violation of “Open Skies” executive agreements that those nations have with the United States. For the UAE, the two carriers are Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways. Those “Open Skies” trade agreements are designed to ensure free market competition between airlines, without government support.

The Trump administration acted on the issue after Breitbart News and other outlets brought the issue to light, with the State Department and Transportation Department pushing through an agreement that will protect U.S. workers and bolster America’s economy.

Sources close to the deal speaking exclusively with Breitbart News on condition of anonymity say that the United State and UAE are signing an agreement in private on Friday that will be announced on Monday, ending these subsidies and restoring a competitive environment for U.S.-based carriers.

The new trade agreement will include an explicit admission by UAE that subsidizing airlines harms foreign competitors, reversing three years of denying those accusations. The UAE also agrees to:

• Freeze any new “fifth freedom” flight routes, under which UAE companies could fly routes directly between the United States and other foreign countries, harming the ability of United, American Airlines, and Delta to compete in those same routes.
• Reporting any new transactions involving Emirates Air and Etihad.
• Requiring Emirates Air and Etihad to fully pay for new airport construction and development, which previously had been subsidized by the UAE government.
• Operating in a transparent manner according to international accounting standards, ensuring compliance with the terms of this agreement.
• Meet with U.S. representatives in one year to review the results of implementing the new agreement.

Any violations of this deal could result in the United States invoking Article 15 of the agreement, under which America could disallow any flights by UAE-owed airlines in the United States, with devastating consequences to those foreign airlines.

Experts estimate that the Trump administration’s new trade deal could protect as many as 1.2 million jobs which depend on a robust domestic airline industry.

This deal comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s success in January of getting Qatar to sign such an agreement. Unconfirmed reports are that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will make the announcement on Monday regarding the UAE alongside the foreign minister from that nation during his visit to Washington.

Supporters of United, American Airlines, and Delta had tried for the final two years of Barack Obama to persuade his administration to do something about this issue. One year after President Trump took office, a new agreement has been reached, consistent with the president’s America First agenda.

Published on Breitbart.