The U.S. Commerce Department today issued a preliminary finding that Canada’s Bombardier aircraft company was getting unfair subsidies for its CSeries jets — and laid out a plan that would more than triple the cost of the jets being bought by Delta Air Lines.
As a result of the ruling, the importers of Canadian civil aircraft with a capacity of 100 to 150 seats would have to pay a 219.63 percent tariff.
The ruling sides with Boeing, which filed a petition complaining that Bombardier’s sale of 75 CS100 jets to Delta was being subsidized by the governments of Canada as well as Britain. Bombardier is based in Montreal, but its wings are built in Northern Ireland.
“The U.S. values its relationships with Canada, but even our closest allies must play by the rules,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. “The subsidization of goods by foreign governments is something that the Trump administration takes very seriously, and we will continue to evaluate and verify the accuracy of this preliminary determination.”
