While some progress has been made in avoiding U.S. tariffs on aviation products for many countries, much more needs to be done in cases such as Brazil and Switzerland, which have found themselves singled out for high charges by the Trump Administration. At the JetNet IQ Summit in Washington, D.C, last week, business aviation executives called for the industry to keep up the pressure to achieve zero-rated tariffs on imports.
“We’ve got to keep this a front-burner issue and not let up,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “We took care of a couple of things, and we’ll get around to others. It’s got to stay front and center, and that’s up to us to keep that pressure up.”
Bolen participated in a panel discussing a range of critical advocacy issues with James Viola, president and CEO of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and Jürgen Wiese, chairman of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA). Kurt Edwards, general director of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC), moderated the panel.
On tariffs, Bolen noted that the industry has been united on this issue but underscored the difficulty of discussing this with the White House. It has been difficult to pinpoint the leverage points to argue their cause. “We know it's in the executive branch,” he said. “Is it this department or that department. Who's really the trade advisor? Is it internal to the White House?”
Bolen pointed out that U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has weighed in on the issue and highlighted that tariffs could impact safety. “But there's a lot more work to do,” he acknowledged.
Viola added that this issue has continued much longer than anyone anticipated. “Somebody mentioned it’s going to be over by April. Then it was going to be over by July, then it was going to be August, and now we’re into September.”
GAMA members shared their concerns during their 110 separate meetings on Capitol Hill. “We talked to the congressmen and congresswomen, and everybody sees that aviation is special,” Viola explained. He said there is a broad consensus over the desirability of sticking with the 1979 Agreement on Trade and Civil Aircraft for zero tariffs on aviation products.
Viola highlighted agreements that are now being implemented, such as the zero-tariff pact with the UK. “We think it’s moving in the right direction.” Bolen agreed and said the hope is that such agreements are precedent-setting, moving the industry closer to where they were under the 1979 agreement.
“It's a flat, fair reciprocal playing field, and in that playing field, the U.S. dominates. It dominates,” Bolen added, noting the U.S. has six times more aerospace exports than imports. “We're winning…It's about getting on message and being able to say the same thing over and over in different ways, and in our case, from different aspects of aviation. And we know we've got right on our side.”
Edwards noted tariffs have had “wide-reaching effects around the world.” He added, however, that in Europe, business aviation is facing some fundamental challenges, such as temporary bans on operations at certain airports or even countries.
Bizav Bans in Europe
Wiese warned about the recent instances in which business aviation has faced bans in Europe. He pointed to one such case in early July, when the French government barred business aviation activity in Paris and Nice during an air traffic controller strike. “They had come up with the argument that, of course, they needed the available capacity for airline operations, which they say are more beneficial to society and which, of course, we oppose.”
In the aftermath, arrivals at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport have been reduced until October with authorities citing a lack of staff, the EBAA leader said, but added in reality, “you don't know how long it will last.”
EBAA is in the second stage of filing a lawsuit in the French constitutional court seeking to prevent operations from being blocked in this way. “This is against the French constitution," Wiese argued. "We want to avoid the precedents. and because this is what we see right now, maybe the precursor of other countries following based on today's capacity, tomorrow it's environment, and whatever reasons will be taken to disadvantage business aviation.”
The Brussels-based organization is working with its French representatives as well as the local community to fight the ongoing restrictions. “We are also joined by FBOs, by operators, and even by Nice airport—where actually the airport itself does not want this to be implemented by the ATC organization—and by the French DGAC. So that's a great coalition right now,” he said. “Everything costs money, and so we bundled the forces.”
ICAO Will Assess GNSS Interference
On a global stage, Edwards said that the International Civil Aviation Organization is gearing up for the triennial assembly coming up later this month at ICAO, where all 193 states will meet. Noting a myriad of issues facing the assembly this year, Edwards added that a key topic will be on GNSS radio frequency interference.
“It's a technical issue, largely because people want to figure out how do we stop this, how do we block it, or how do we remain resilient in the face of these types of jamming and spoofing efforts,” Edwards said. “There's no solution at this point.”
Edwards anticipates the assembly will likely task ICAO to draw upon experts from around the world to “figure this out.” He added that while it's a technical issue, it’s also a political issue. “We've just seen now a paper coming out of the council that seeks to condemn Russia for its efforts [in] sweeping and jamming,” he said. “The states of Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland all found evidence that efforts have been coming out of Russia to jam and spoof aircraft in their airspace. So this is going to be a big political issue as well as a technical issue as we go into thiss big meeting from September 22nd.”
IBAC has representation on the aviation security panel and the newer cybersecurity panel, which will delve into these issues.