GE’s Iraq Deals May Be In Jeopardy Due To Trump Travel Ban: Report – Investor’s Business Daily

U.S. diplomats said that Iraq had wanted to sign two deals with GE that "could be negatively affected," a State Department memo obtained by Politico said. (Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com)

President Trump's travel restrictions couldreportedly jeopardize some ofGeneral Electric's (GE) business in Iraq, making the industrial giant the latest company to potentially lose out as the White House takes a less globalist approach to the world.

Last month, GE said it had secured more than $1.4 billion in orders from Iraq to develop power plants. GE, in announcing that deal, said it has "over 40 years of presence in Iraq, and supports the country's infrastructure needs in power generation, oil & gas, water processing, aviation and healthcare, through diversified multi-business solutions and local presence."

U.S. diplomats said thatIraq had wanted to sign two more deals with GE that "could be negatively affected," a State Department memoobtained by Politicosaid, citing a top Iraqi official.

"The travel ban called into question whether GE and the U.S. could be reliable partners," the memo said, adding that relations between the two "would be hurt by the new visa policy."

According to the memo, the Iraqi government "wanted to expand Iraq's cooperation with GE into the health, transportation, and aviation sectors, as a well as sign a maintenance deal with GE worth billions of dollars."

Politico noted that it was not known whether Iraq's warning on the deals signaled a form of retaliation and quoted an analyst as saying that cancellation of the deals seemed unlikely given Iraq's power-generation needs.

Shares of General Electric closed down 1 cent at 29.68on the stock market today, near the lowest levels in nearly three months.The company, which makes oil equipment, turbines, locomotives, medical equipment, aircraft engines and many other things, generates more than half its revenue from outside the U.S.

Shares of Boeing (BA), which has a deal with Iran to sell 80 commercial aircraft, fell 1% to 162.26, still above a 160.17 flat base buy point cleared last week.

IBD'S TAKE: As General Electric girds for the potentialriseof U.S. protectionism, here's a look at other stocks from tech and retail that might be affected by Trump's immigration ban.

The executive order signed last Friday suspends visas and prohibits entry for people from seven largely Muslim countries: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

While the White House has said the restrictions will give the U.S. more time to strengthen national security, they have drawn nationwide protests and created interagency confusion over how to carry out the order.

Analysts in the airline sector have also expressed concern that the executive order's suspension of the Visa Interview Waiver Program could discourage travel and prompt nations to hit back at the U.S. with restrictions of their own or other measures.

This week,GE CEO Jeff Immelt also said in an interview with Bloomberg that he isn't worried about deals in the region but warned that a more open international trade policy that had been in place for generations might be coming to an end.

Immelt, who is on a panel that advises Trump on manufacturing, said the president's attempts to shore up U.S. manufacturing jobs were a good thing, but relationships with the rest of the world were still important.

"Inherently, we don't think things like walls are good ideas," he told Bloomberg, adding: "It's up to me to speak about how important it is that the U.S. have good relations with our potential customers around the world."

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The ISM manufacturing index rose to its best level since November 2014 last month while private hiring stepped up. But GM and Ford reported weaker U.S. sales. ( Rainer Plendl/stock.adobe.com)

2/01/2017 The ISM manufacturing index rose to its best level since Nov. 2014 while private hiring stepped up. But GM and...

2/01/2017 The ISM manufacturing index rose to its best level since...

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GE's Iraq Deals May Be In Jeopardy Due To Trump Travel Ban: Report - Investor's Business Daily

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