One has to wonder what all the conservative pundits who decry the Obama Administration’s supposed anti-business bias think about the President’s recent visit to Boeing in Everett, Wash., and his pledge to in effect use the ExIm Bank to support domestic sales of 737s. In the realm of civil aircraft this marks the first time either side has threatened to break what became known as the home market rule since the U.S. and Europe entered into a so-called “gentleman’s agreement” under which neither Boeing nor Airbus could benefit from export credit agency support for sales to airlines based within their respective countries of manufacture.
“Today, the President will announce that the Administration will actively employ its existing authorities so that the Export-Import Bank can provide U.S. firms competing for domestic or third-country sales with matching financing support to counter foreign non-competitive official financing that fails to observe international disciplines,” said a White House briefing paper distributed before the event. “The President will not allow U.S. companies and workers to lose out on valuable business due to unfair export financing—and will use the Administration’s full powers to ensure that they are competing on an even footing."
Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with New Jersey Monthly magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for Aviation International News in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.
