Two lawmakers back Bombardier

Two lawmakers wrote to the head of the U.S. International Trade Commission to express support for Bombrdier in the company's trade dispute with Boeing. The letters from Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., come days before four trade commissioners will vote on whether Bombardier's sale of CS100s to Delta Air Lines in 2016 caused harm to Boeing. The ITC has scheduled the vote for Jan. 25 in Washington D.C., but that may be postponed due to the recent U.S. government shutdown, says the ITC. A favorable vote for Boeing would subject the Bombardier plane to a 292 percent import tariff already set by the U.S. Department of Commerce. "This trade enforcement action would ultimately serve no other purpose than to take work away from U.S. suppliers and quash thousands of U.S. jobs, ultimately hurting the greater U.S. aerospace industry," writes Byrne to ITC chair Rhonda K. Schmidtlein. Byrne represents the district that includes Mobile, where Airbus and Bombardier are working to open a CSeries final assembly line. Planes built in the United States would avoid a tariff. (Source: Flightglobal, 01/23/18) Previous