US backs 300 percent in duties on Bombardier after Boeing complaint

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The US Commerce Department has notched up proposed trade duties on Bombardier Inc CSeries jets to nearly 300 percent, affirming Boeing Co’s complaint that the Canadian company received illegal subsidies and dumped the planes at “absurdly low” prices.

The decision underscored the defensive trade policy of US President Donald Trump, and could effectively halt sales of Bombardier’s innovative new plane to US airlines by quadrupling the cost of the jets imported to the United States.

The Commerce Department proposed a 79.82-percent antidumping duty on Friday, on top of a 219.63-percent duty for subsidies announced last week.

The new duty follows a preliminary finding that Bombardier sold 75 CSeries jets below cost to Delta Air Lines Inc in 2016. The total was well above the 80-percent Boeing sought in its complaint.

The proposed duties would not take effect unless affirmed by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) early next year.

The duties are expected to heighten trade tensions between the US, Canada and Britain, where CSeries wings are made. The US, Canada and Mexico are also negotiating to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement.

After the first duty was announced on September 26, Canada and Britain threatened to avoid buying Boeing military equipment, saying duties on the CSeries would reduce US sales and put thousands of Bombardier jobs in their countries at risk.

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Source(s): Reuters