Boeing's message to Trump: Iran jet deal's good for jobs

New York

BOEING announced a US$16.6 billion deal on Sunday to sell planes to Iran, which for decades had been economically blacklisted by the United States. The company chose to emphasise in its announcement how many jobs the sale would support. "Today's agreement will support tens of thousands of US jobs" associated with the production and delivery of the planes, Boeing said in its news release. The intended recipient of Boeing's message clearly seemed to be president-elect Donald Trump. Its carefully worded statement is emblematic of the tightrope that the United States' biggest exporters are walking amid his threats to shake up trade policy and undo the Obama administration's nuclear accord with Iran. That agreement lifted the US sanctions on Iran, making Boeing's jet deal possible.

Mr Trump has talked about imposing tariffs on imports from China and on US companies that move jobs to Mexico and other countries. But he has not said much about how some of the United States' major manufacturing companies, such as Boeing and General Electric, and their workers could be hurt if other countries retaliated for the tariffs or if existing trade agreements were ripped up.