Boeing’s Bombardier battle stalls fed deals
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Boeing can forget about selling fighter jets to Canada as long as its trade complaint is ongoing against Quebec aerospace firm Bombardier.
Trudeau’s comments Monday, the toughest yet in the ongoing battle between Boeing and the Canadian government over the complaint against Bombardier, appear to jeopardize not only Boeing’s current proposal to sell interim fighter jets to Canada but its hope to sell Canada additional aircraft in the future to replace the CF-18 fleet permanently.
“We won’t do business with a company that is busy trying to sue us and put our aerospace workers out of business,” Trudeau said Monday during a press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
May said she will raise the issue of Boeing’s trade complaint against Bombardier with U.S. President Donald Trump when she meets with him later this week.
Boeing’s complaint to the U.S. government holds that Bombardier’s civilian passenger-jet program has been subsidized, which in turn allowed it to sell its C-Series civilian passenger aircraft at below-market prices. At Boeing’s behest, the U.S. Commerce Department and International Trade Commission launched an investigation.
On Monday, the prime minister described the C-Series aircraft as “excellent” and said Canada will protect the aerospace jobs associated with the plane.
Boeing officials, however, pointed out after Trudeau’s comments that the company is not suing Canada; its trade complaint is aimed at Bombardier.