Trump may be off target when it comes to Boeing statements
Aug 30, 2016, 9:41 AM
Donald Trump saying Washington could lose Boeing if he isn't elected could show that he doesn't understand the aviation industry. (AP)
(AP)
Donald Trump actually had an upbeat take on the Pacific Northwest economy when he spoke with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson — except for one thing.
He warned state lawmakers that they need to be careful, otherwise the state could lose Boeing.
“You’d better be careful because you know what’s going on with Boeing and Boeing is building massive facilities in China and then they’ll drop their currency and they’ll start devaluations as they always do and they’ll start taking your business away and you won’t have much of Boeing left,” Trump said Monday. “If I’m president, that won’t happen but, believe me, they’re looking to get your businesses out of there and you know how bad the trade deals have been for Washington state, because they’re very unfair deals. Now you live with them but we should do more than live with them, but the deals have been very, very unfair, the trade deals that have been made.”
Trump’s warning to Washington workers is similar to what he told Boeing workers in South Carolina earlier this year. He says China is after Boeing’s manufacturing business and the only way to keep the company is America is to stop China from devaluing its currency, which makes Chinese products cheap.
“Well, look, basically you have to create something where other countries — and mostly it’s countries — but other countries are not devaluing their currency,” Trump explained.
“You look at what’s going on with China, you look what’s going on with other countries that are competitors of ours, and competitors, in a sense, of Boeing, and they make it impossible for your companies and your local companies to compete. And before you know it, they won’t even be making the planes in Seattle, they won’t even be making the planes in the state of Washington. You watch. Hopefully, I get in so you won’t have that problem, but if I don’t get in, I guarantee you someday you’ll be calling, you’ll be saying, ‘I remember when this guy, Trump, was saying this is exactly what was going to happen.’ And you’ll see. Look at what’s going on with China, look at the facilities they’re building over there, so you better be very careful because they’re looking to take your business.”
Airbus is doing final assembly on the A-320 in Tianjin, China. And last year, Boeing announced that 737s destined for China would get painted and carpeted at the new factory in China. But aviation consultant Richard Aboulafia says nobody should be worried that Boeing gave away any “strategic carpet-stapling capabilities.”
Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group, told the Daily Herald that Trump’s warning is “side-splittingly hilarious.” He says Trump misunderstands the aircraft industry. Aboulafia points out that Boeing is already outsourcing Washington jobs to South Carolina.
Additionally, Boeing has been bringing work back to the Seattle area. The 787’s wings were famously made in Japan, but for the 777X, it brought the wing-manufacturing back to Everett.
One federal program that does affect Boeing is the Export-Import bank, which finances Boeing’s overseas sales. When Congress temporarily closed it, Trump called it “feather bedding,” something the country could do without, and that it was “not free enterprise.”
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