U.S. trade commission rejects Bombardier effort to add to factual record
By Ross Marowits
General AerospaceUSITC to make final judgement on C Series tariff on Friday
Photo credit: Patrick Cardinal
The American agency made its decision a day after the Montreal-based transportation company argued that the Brazilian plane’s range above 2,900 nautical miles qualifies it to be considered as a competitor in the 100- to 150-seat segment of the market.
“We are disappointed because we felt this was important information for the investigation,” said Bombardier spokesman Simon Letendre.
Boeing has argued that the plane’s range below the 2,900-nautical-mile threshold qualifies it as a regional jet that doesn’t compete with the C Series or Boeing’s 737.
The USITC will vote Friday afternoon on whether duties should be imposed against Bombardier’s C Series jet. That’s a day later than originally planned because of the U.S. government shutdown.
The agency will determine if the introduction of the C Series into the U.S. harms Boeing.
Delta Air Lines was expected to receive the first of its firm order for 75 CS100 planes in the spring, but now plans to wait until the aircraft destined for U.S. customers is built in Alabama.
Boeing launched the trade case last April, arguing that governments in Canada and Britain subsidized the plane’s development and allowed Bombardier to sell it at unfairly low prices.
Bombardier spokesman Mike Nadolski said Tuesday that Boeing has been disingenuous by demanding the U.S. government ignore Embraer’s role in the market while trying to buy the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer.
He said details about the Embraer aircraft, which came after the factual record closed at the USITC, “eviscerates the premise of Boeing’s case.”
“Boeing’s previous attempts to exclude Embraer from the ITC’s analysis has resulted in a fundamentally flawed assessment of the market that we believe needs to be addressed,” he wrote in an email.
The U.S. Department of Commerce imposed duties of 292.21 per cent on the C Series aircraft.
The Canadian government has filed requests for panel reviews under NAFTA to appeal U.S. decisions to impose duties on imports of the C Series and softwood lumber from Canada.
NAFTA’s Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism means Canada can get a panel made up of American and Canadian trade experts to decide if the duties follow U.S. trade law, rather than going through the U.S. court system.
Canada is also arguing that the entire U.S. process for imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties violates global trade rules.
