Trudeau in ‘vehement’ dispute with Trump as tariffs row escalates

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, the Canadian Prime Minister, yesterday told Donald Trump he would block his country’s armed forces from buying Boeing aircraft if the United States pressed ahead with plans to slap import tariffs of 300 per cent on its Bombardier aeroplanes. The issue is threatening to ignite a trade war between the US, Canada and the UK, where Canadian plane-maker Bombardier employs about 4,000 people in Belfast.

Mr Trudeau met the Mr Trump at the White House for talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement and said he raised the question of Bombardier “directly”. “I highlighted to the president how we disagree vehemently with the decision to bring in countervailing and anti-dumping duties against Bombardier, that we feel this is not something that is warranted and quite frankly something that we look very negatively upon,” he said after the meeting. “The attempts by Boeing to put tens of thousands of aerospace workers out of work across Canada is not something we look on positively.”

Mr Trudeau said he told Mr Trump he would prevent subsequent Canadian government orders from Boeing. “I certainly mentioned that this was a block to us making any military procurements from Boeing,” he said.