Letter: Fair and open skies

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While the left claims to be the party of the middle class, it is conservative activists, alongside our president, who are working to protect the livelihoods of American citizens. A perfect example would be the recent win in the Open Skies agreement.

International trade is a cornerstone of our nation’s success, but fair and free trade only works if both parties abide by the rules. Such has not been the case with the Open Skies agreement – a bilateral agreement between foreign governments and the U.S. regarding international flights.

Three Middle East government-owned airlines – Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways – have, for years, violated this agreement which explicitly prohibits government subsidization of the airlines. This trade cheating allowed the three airlines to fly unprofitable routes for the sole purpose of driving out the competition, putting the jobs of omore than 1.2 million American workers at risk. Unfortunately, very few people were aware of the violation and no previous administrations had attempted to rectify it, until now.

Due to the efforts of conservative activists, Qatar is now committing to provide transparency of its records, which will have a domino effect with other countries. Conservative activists worked to educate the public by reaching over one million Americans through webinars, op-eds, “tool-kits” and calls to members of Congress, resulting in thousands of signatures being hand-delivered to the White House. Thanks to the tireless effort of these activists, and the persistence of our president, the campaign promise to enforce trade agreements is becoming a reality, as well as the President’s agenda to ‘make America great again’ and put American workers first.

Orignally Posted on Argus Leader.

americans4fairskies2015Letter: Fair and open skies

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