Nov 9, 2016, 12:25pm PST

 

 

Boeing offered congratulations to Donald Trump but declined to discuss major issues it faces under the presidential administration set to take office in January.

 

"We congratulate President-elect Trump and newly elected members of Congress and look forward to working with them to ensure that U.S. companies can compete, win and grow our economy to provide good jobs to U.S. workers; as well as preserve American leadership in national security," Boeing Commercial Airplanes spokesman Paul Bergman said in a prepared statement.

 

 

Bergman declined to discuss how the Trump administration might affect the jet maker's massive deal with Iran and the future of the Ex-Im Bank, a federal lending agency that helps Boeing export aircraft.

 

Trump has said he doesn't support the Ex-Im Bank, which was created in 1934, and questioned its existence in an interview with the The National Review last summer.

 

"I don’t like it because I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s a one-way street also. It’s sort of a feather bedding for politicians and others, and a few companies. And these are companies that can do very well without it. So I don’t like it. I think it’s a lot of excess baggage. I think it’s unnecessary," Trump told the magazine.

 

Chicago-based Boeing (NYSE: BA) received at least $5.4 billion in loan guarantees from the bank in fiscal year 2015, according to an analysis by George Mason University - Mercatus Center researcher Veronique de Rugy.

 

A second analysis by OpenTheBooks.com found that one-third of all Ex-Im Bank transactions since 2007 benefited Boeing, calling the federal lender "The Bank of Boeing."

 

Trump has made positive comments about Boeing's sale of 80 jets to Iran for up to $25 billion at list prices. He said the U.S. government should have required Iran to buy only Boeing jets before the U.S. released Iranian assets as part of a nuclear deal.

 

However, Boeing's Iran deal is a sensitive issue among Republican lawmakers, who opposed the nuclear agreement and sale of new jets to a state they call a sponsor of international terrorism.

 

Trump has also criticized Boeing for opening a new aircraft finishing plant in China and for its dealings with the Clinton Foundation, noting the jet maker made a $900,000 donation in 2010 for work in Haiti a few months after Hillary Clinton helped Boeing land a $3.7 billion deal in Russia.

 

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents 13,375 Boeing engineers and 5,575 technical workers in Washington state, declined to comment on the election results.