Trump threatens to block Canadian Bombardier jet sales in US

Donald Trump has threatened to stop the sale of Canadian-made Bombardier jets in the United States, declaring them 'aren't good enough' in what the Independent describes as the latest salvo in a trade war. The BBC reports the threat as part of escalating tensions over cross-border commerce.

Bombardier Aviation is a Canadian aircraft manufacturer now owned by Airbus. The company's commercial jet programme was sold to Airbus, which rebranded the CSeries as the Airbus A220. Trump's target is therefore partly a European-owned product built in Canada - a complication that makes the threat harder to execute cleanly than a simple import ban.

The economics of aerospace are sticky. Airlines order years in advance; long-term contracts and maintenance agreements mean switching suppliers mid-fleet is expensive and operationally complex. A US ban on Bombardier jets would hit airlines already operating them - including American carriers - and leave them with orphaned fleets. It would also invite retaliation from Canada and the EU, both of whom can make life difficult for Boeing.

What to watch: whether Trump moves from threat to tariff, and whether Canada responds in kind. The last round of US-Canada aerospace friction, over subsidies, ended with negotiated settlement rather than all-out trade war. This one may follow the same path - or it may not.