International trade interests brace for Trump presidency

Global markets are in turmoil as President-elect Donald Trump readies his transition team and, presumably, advances what is expected to be and agenda hostile to free trade. Meanwhile, the air cargo community is rushing to build bridges with free-trade factions within the new regime, such as Vice President-elect Michael Pence, who has a strong pro-free trade record.

President-elect Trump ran his campaign on an anti-free-trade platform, and no industry is more susceptible to downturns in international trade than air cargo. While trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), inked by former President Bill Clinton, increased the bottom line of the United States, working-class disenfranchisement and a fear of more domestic jobs being lost has been blamed for driving voters to the polls in favor of Trump, who railed against the sort of trade agreements that drive the air cargo industry.

If Trumps follows through on his promises to kill deals such as NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), air cargo actors will find themselves facing down an industry that transformed overnight.

And while President-elect Trump has railed against his country’s failing infrastructure, his plans to privatize large swaths, in exchange for reconstruction, has worried his detractors who see his plans as an impediment to small business growth.

The Airlines for America (A4A) is one group that has open embraced the change, welcoming Trump as the 45^th U.S. President-elect and hoping to collaborate with his transition team on “modernizing the infrastructure of the skies to meet the needs of a growing U.S. economy.”

“We look forward to working with the transition team on strengthening our infrastructure in the sky to meet the nation’s growing demands on the ground,” said Nicholas Calio, president and chief executive of A4A. “The current U.S. Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, while safe, is an inefficient relic of the 1940s. We’re eager to work with President-elect Trump to transform it to reduce delays for the 2.2 million passengers and 50,000 tons of cargo that fly every day, while accommodating future growth and demand for travel and shipping.”

International trade will rise regardless of America’s short-term vacillations, and we at Air Cargo World maintain that the fundamentals of economics hold true; trade creates wealth out of thin air, and we encourage the United States to maintain a sober and rational leadership position in the years ahead.