In a decision that’s bound to infuriate the leaders of Canada and the UK, the US Commerce Department on Friday tacked on an additional 80% tariff against Bombardier C-Series Jets imported from the US’s northern neighbor, adding to a 220% preliminary levy authorized last week. The ruling is the culmination of a long-running feud between Boeing and Bombardier; Boeing accused its rival in April of benefiting from anticompetitive government subsidies. US customs will now begin imposing the now 300% combined tariff, potentially complicating Delta Air Lines’ pending purchase order of 75 C-Series jets, a deal that would’ve been worth some $5 billion to Bombardier. As the National Post noted, the decision will make it effectively impossible for Bombardier to sell its planes in the US. It also has important ramifications for the aerospace industry in both Canada and the UK, and also casts doubt on Bombardier’s future after a rocky stretch of thin sales.
“The United States is committed to free, fair and reciprocal trade with Canada, but this is not our idea of a properly functioning trading relationship,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “We will continue to verify the accuracy of this decision, while do everything in our power to stand up for American companies and their workers.”
Bombardier hasn’t responded to the decision, but last week said the 220% tariff was “absurd and divorced from the reality about the financing of multibillion-dollar aircraft programs” and that it would push for the decision to be reversed in the coming months. Bombardier has long maintained that Boeing can’t justify its claim of being harmed by the C-Series since it doesn’t manufacture any jets of comparable size.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on Oct 6, 2017.
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