Boeing claims revealed in new filings

BOEING SAYS TRADE COMPLAINT AGAINST BOMBARDIER DESIGNED TO PREVENT LARGER CSERIES

Boeing says its trade complaint against Bombardier is designed to prevent the Montreal-based rival from using subsidies to build a larger version of the CSeries plane that would directly compete with its own flagship narrowbody 737 aircraft.

Last week, Boeing filed a document with the U.S. International Trade Commission that sheds new light on the tit-for-tat dispute between the two aerospace manufacturers.

In the 109-page filing, Boeing said Bombardier would be positioned to build a fullfleet of single-aisle planes — repeating a strategy employed by French aerospace company Airbus — if Canadian subsidies to Bombardier are left unaddressed.

“The U.S. industry has been the victim of this exact strategy before, as subsidies to Airbus enabled it to push McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed from the market, and capture 50 per cent global market share, destroying countless high-paying, skilled U.S. jobs in the process,” Boeing said.

Bombardier said in a separate filing that Boeing’s effort to shut down its innovative technology from the market is “misguided,” adding that the complaint is tantamount to asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to imagine a hypothetical world in the future.

The company said its CSeries commercial jet isn’t an imminent threat to Boeing because the first planes won’t be delivered to Delta for another year, Boeing doesn’t sell a comparable product and Boeing’s 737 production is sold out for about eight years with a backlog valued at about US$190 billion, Bombardier said.

“Using this case as an Airbus ‘do-over’ is a misuse of the statutory threat provision,” Bombardier said.