Commerce investigates Canadian aircraft imports

The Commerce Department has initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into the import of 100- to 150-seat passenger planes from Canada.    The Commerce Department has initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into the import of 100- to 150-seat passenger planes from Canada.
   Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than fair value, while countervailable subsidies are payments made by foreign governments to domestic companies based on their export performance or use of domestic inputs over imported goods during manufacturing.
   If the Commerce Department determines that Canadian civil aircraft are being dumped into the U.S. market, and/or receiving unfair government subsidies, and the ITC determines that dumped and/or unfairly subsidized Canadian imports of civil aircraft into the United States are causing harm to the U.S. industry—then Commerce will impose antidumping and countervailing duties on those imports.
   The ITC is scheduled to make its preliminary injury determinations by June 12, while Commerce will announce its preliminary countervailing duty determination in July and its preliminary antidumping determination in October, though these dates may be extended. If the ITC’s determinations are negative, the investigations will end.
   Boeing Co. filed the petition with the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission for the investigations on April 27. The estimated dumping margin alleged by Boeing is 79.82 percent and the subsidies are estimated to be 79.41 percent.
   Boeing’s petition follows a deal reached last year by Canada’s Bombardier Commercial Aircraft to sell 75 CS100 passenger planes to Delta Air Lines of Atlanta. The deal is valued at about $5.6 billion.
   With this order, the largest in Bombardier Commercial Aircraft history, Delta becomes the C Series aircraft’s largest customer. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in spring 2018.
   The Canadian government on Thursday fired back at the allegations, threatening to pull the plug on military procurement contracts with Boeing if the Commerce investigation moves forward.
   “Boeing’s petition is clearly aimed at blocking Bombardier’s new aircraft, the CSeries, from entering the U.S. market,” Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said in a statement. “Boeing admits it does not compete with exports of the CS100 aircraft, so it is all the more difficult to see these allegations as legitimate, particularly with the dominance of the Boeing 737 family in the U.S. market.
   “Furthermore, many of the CSeries suppliers are based in the United States. Components for the CSeries are supplied by American companies, directly supporting high-paying jobs in many U.S. states, including Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, Washington, New York, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Colorado,” she added.