In public remarks a couple miles away from the White House on 2 March, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg re-issued a call for re-empowering the Ex-Im Bank and elaborated on the company’s approach to globalisation in an era of the Trump administration in the USA and Brexit in the UK.
Despite the rising popularity of protectionist trade policy among voters in the USA and the UK, Muilenburg called for an approach to global trade that leverages growth in overseas markets to create jobs in the USA, while speaking at the US Chamber of Commerce aviation summit.
It’s part of a delicate balance Boeing is attempting to strike as the global aerospace giant builds an increasingly friendly relationship with US president Donald Trump while continuing to build up its manufacturing presence abroad, including a planned finishing and delivery centre for 737s in Zhoushan, China.
“We invest around the globe to create sustainable presence and depth,” Muilenbrug says. This approach to “smart globalisation”, he adds, “allows us to grow around the world while we grow here”.
A key enabler of that strategy is support by the Trump administration and Congress for re-empowering the Ex-Im Bank to finance deals worth more than $10 million.
In December 2015, Congress re-authorised the Ex-Im Bank, but has refused to nominate new members to the board. As a result, the bank lacks a quorum of decision-makers authorised to approve deals worth more than $10 million.
“I think the incoming administration is very supportive, and the support on the Hill is very clear,” Muilenburg says, referencing Trump’s new government and Congress.
Muilenburg says he is told that “more than 40 export deals ... are sitting in the bank’s pipeline right now” worth more than $30 billion in value, but are held up without a quorum on the bank’s board.
“Ex-Im is a big deal for our country and we ought to get it back up and operational,” Muilenburg says.
The remarks about the bank comes two weeks after Muilenburg appeared with Trump at Boeing’s factory in North Charleston, South Carolina, to celebrate the roll-out of the first 787-10.
The event highlighted a sudden turn-around in Boeing’s relationship with the new US president, who only two months before had called for the cancellation of the Air Force One replacement due to excessive costs. Since Trump issued that critique on Twitter, he has reversed his opinion, saying he’s worked out a compromise deal with Boeing that cuts about $1 billion from the bill.
Trump also has expressed openness in acquiring a new version of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
In return, Muilenburg has talked glowingly about Trump’s business proposals, which include repealing regulations, cutting corporate taxes and renegotiating multi-lateral trade deals.
“He’s very much engaged with industry and business has a voice at the table,” Muilenburg says.
Muilenburg’s appearance did not address the lingering issue of Boeing’s sale of 80 commercial aircraft to Iran Air, which are allowed under a nuclear disarmament deal that Trump strongly criticised during his election campaign.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
