Bombardier, Boeing square up at US trade tribunal over C-Series
Posted December 18, 2017 6:52 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s the next step in the dispute between Bombardier and Boeing over proposed 300 per cent tariffs on the C-Series plane, as the two companies make their cases in front of a major trade tribunal today.
Boeing will have a tough time convincing the US International Trade Commission to impose that sort of a duty on the C-Series plane, in the view of McGill associate professor Karl Moore, who specializes in the aviation industry.
That’s because European planemaker Airbus is in the process of trying to buy a majority stake in the C-Series and then assemble it in Alabama.
“It’s an uphill battle for Boeing from a Canadian viewpoint, to try and show that they were harmed, because they didn’t even compete for the order,” says Moore. “The C-Series is now going to be assembled in the US, so it will be a made-in-America, or at least an assembled-in-America product, so the case is less and less tenable.”
“My sense is that a fair judgement would be that there is no need for any duties involved,” says Moore.
Our federal government has been publicly supporting Bombardier throughout this process — with our ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton expected to attend this hearing in support of the company.
